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XT '"'i''^- ^ ThihtirRph . 



THE HISTORY 



fa 



'#■ 



The Great Republic, 



CONSIDERED 



FROM A CHRISTIAN STAND-POINT. 



/ 

By JESSE T. PECK, D.D. 



WITH THIRTY-FOUR FINE STEEL PORTRAITS. 



..^- 



SOLD BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY. 




t P NEW YORK: 
BROUGHTON AND WYMAN, 13 BIBLE HOUSE, 

1868. 



O^AJf , X" 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by 

JESSE T. PECK, D.D., 

I« the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United Stales for the Southern District of New Yorlc. 






Gko. C. Rand & Avery, Stbrkotvpf.rs ano Printers, Boston. 



To 



Rev. Reuben Reynolds, who taught him the alphabet, and afterwards, at an 
important period of life, determined the sphere of his studies and labors ; to the memory 
of his deceased sister, Elizabeth, who gave him all the valuable instructions in the 
art of speaking he ever received, and by the force of whose clear, thorough teaching, 
and elevated Christian womanhood, his young mind was filled with noble aspirations; 
to Amos R. Avery, M.D., whose gentle words^ and kind, persistent efforts, in the 
schoolroom and elsewhere, strongly aided his struggling boyhood ; to Rev. Henry 
Halstead, under whose searcliing appeals, on the day of his conversion, he was power- 
fully convinced of sin ; to Rev. D. D. Whedon, D.D., one of his earliest and best 
classical teachers, and who inspired his first hope of success in the use of the pen ; to 
his excellent brother, George Peck, D.D., who in his childhood tenderly bore him to 
school, who with truly paternal care superintended his education and preparation for the 
ministry, and whose character as a man and minister has ever been his noblest model ; 
to Rev. E. Foster, who almost literally compelled him to write this book ; and his 
faithful Wife, to whose energetic promptings, and constant, earnest encouragement, 
ke must refer all his important literary enterprises, — 

This Work 

IS MOST RESPECTFULLY AND GRATEFULLY DEDICATED 
BY THE AUTHOR. 



Embellishments. 



, FINE STEEL PORTRAITS. 



COLUMBUS. 
ROGER WILLIAMS. 
COTTON MATHER. 
WASHINGTON. 
JOHN ADAMS. 
BISHOP ASBURY. 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
JOHN JAY. 
THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
PATRICK HENRY. 
JONATHAN EDWARDS. 
CHIEF-JUSTFCE MARSHALL. 
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 
HENRY CLAY. 
DANIEL WEBSTER. 
CHIEF-JUSTICE McLEAX. 
THEODORE FRELLNGHUYSEN. 



ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER. 
CHARLES SUMNER. 
MAJOR-GENERAL MITCHELL 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
SAMUEL LEWIS. 
FRANCIS WAYLAND. 
GENERAL GRANT. 
BISHOP McILVAINE. 
BISHOP SIMPSON. 
COMMODORE FOOTE. 
CHIEF-JUSTICE CHASE. 
MA.JOR-GENERAL HOWARD. 
GEORGE T. DAY. 
GEORGE PEABODY. 
GEORGE H. STUART. 
SCHUYLER COLFAX. 
THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



The time has come for the reconsideration of the history of the 
United States. The moral revohition which our recent struggle has 
developed indicates the existence of profounder principles and a loftier 
purpose in the origin, structure, and development of the Great Republic, 
than any heretofore distinctly recognized by historical writers. Ameri- 
can history, within the last few years, has brought out vices so deep 
and threatening, has shown in collision forces so formidable and terrific, 
and has revealed a moral grandeur so far above the precedents of mod- 
ern civilization, that there is reason to believe the wisest men of our 
times will be compelled to reconstruct their theories of government and 
of the powers and destiny of man. 

The stand-point which reveals distinctly the force by Avhich the im- 
probabilities of our progress have been achieved must be more com- 
manding than any which has heretofore only shown to the world an 
energetic people struggling for ascendency among the nations of the 
earth. If we are to obtain a view of the real contents of our historical 
globe, it must certainly be by a clearer light and a more searching ex- 
amination than any which have thus far revealed only its outer crust. 

I am aware that I thus present the problems of American and also 
of general history in a way to make any attempt to solve them appear 
formidable and ambitious. It may well be supposed that the writer 
would enter upon a task of such difiiculty and magnitude with timid 
shrinking and very humble anticipations. His only explanation is, that 
the theory of moral and political as well as physical phenomena, if true, 
when once clearly defined, is very simple. If, from the fragmentary or 
elaborate teachings of clear minds and able pens along the line of nar- 
rative or philosophical history, or from the revelations of the Holy Bible 
and the Divine Providence, or by a candid, thorough, prayerful scrutiny 
of the events of his times, he has been able to identify and clearly ex- 
press the true and only principle which can adequately explain the facts 
of our remarkable career, then he, or any man of good common under- 

vii 



Vm PREFACE. 

standing, may search and think and write profitably, though by no means 
exhaustively, in the use of that principle. 

Let it therefore be stated, that the theory of this book is, that God is 
the rightful, actual Sovereign of all nations ; that a i^urpose to advance 
the human race beyond all its precedents in intelligence, goodness, and 
power, formed this Great Hepuhlic ; and that religion is the only life- 
force and organizing power of liberty. If this is true, then all writers 
of American history must rise to this point of observation, or fail. 

It may be stated, without ostentation, that the writer has been, for at 
least a quarter of a century, a careful student of his country's history ; 
this, however, without a thought of attempting any of the functions of an 
historian. But gradually the principles recognized in this book assumed 
distinctness and organic form in his views and convictions. In their 
light, he entered, with all his powers of mind and heart, into the spirit 
of the late war, on the freedom side, and waited, with perfect composure 
and without a doubt, for the final result. 

When the war closed, he felt, and frequently said, that a new book of 
America must be written. He watched for its announcement, but failed 
to see it. He was at length surprised to find himself urged to undertake 
the task ; and, after much hesitancy and delay, he came to feel that it 
was his imperative duty to commence, and leave the event with God. 

Incapable, as he trusts, of the absurdity of any pretensions to origi- 
nality in discovering either principles or methods of the divine govern- 
ment, or of having in any sense superseded the labors of other men, he 
simjily claims to have made, with perfect candor and some thoroughness, 
his humble contribution to what must be admitted to be a very impor- 
tant, if not in some sense a newly-defined, method of American history. 

He now commits his work to the candid consideration of his readei-s 
and to the direction of Providence. If the devout recognition of God 
in the character, purposes, and history of this country and government 
shall be increased, and the loyalty of the American people to the great 
Sovereign of nations in any degree strengthened, the object of the 
author will be accomplished. 

JESSE T. FECK. 
Albany, ycptembcr, 1867. 



ANALYSIS AND AUTHOKITIES. 



The Republic is here presented in five periods. The Period of 
Preparation extends from the discovery of America to the well-defined 
mind-battles which introduce the War of the Revolution. It will be 
illustrated by the likeness of Columbus, as the great rej^resentative of 
the spirit of enterprise which manifested itself in discovery and coloni- 
zation. 

The Period of Independence extends through the Revolutionary War 
to the adoption of the Constitution and the inauguration of the first 
President. As the only possible suggestion of history upon the subject, 
the likeness of Washington introduces this discussion. 

The Period of Development includes the unprecedented growth of the 
country up to the time of our Great Civil War. This, let it be observed, 
is the growth of liberty and of good government under the control of 
Christianity, — the enlightening, liberalizing power which has conserved 
and developed our free institutions, and goes largely to account for our 
material prosperity. Seeking for some one man whose character, labors, 
and influence represent the largest, most pervading power of religion 
over the masses, and whose methods of evangelism have wrought most 
potentially in purifying and elevating our voting freemen, I have been 
pointed, by an inevitable historical necessity, to Francis Asbury. A su- 
perb likeness of this grand pioneer Christian hero will therefore be found 
as the introduction to the Third Period. 

The Period of Emancipation includes the great contest of liberty with 
the slave-power, and means, not the liberation of slaves alone, but of the 
nation. In the Period of Preparation, I speak of African slavery ; but, 
in the Fourth Period, of American slavery and the emancipation of the 
Republic. Abraham Lincoln takes his true historical position here. 

In the Fifth Period, we glance at our country's future ; and we stand 
before it with astonishment and awe, overwhelmed by the visions of 
greatness which rise up before us. No man could fitly represent this 
coming grandeur. We give you a likeness ; but we mean by it express- 



2 ANALYSIS AND AUTHORITIES, 

ly to symbolize the genius of religion acting through science and hero- 
ism for the security and development of the Great Republic of the fu- 
ture. Gen. Mitchell was a Christian, a scholar, a hero. After a brief 
but brilliant military career, he fell in his country's cause. He will, 
therefore, never dishonor the symbol we have adopted. 

Besides these five representative figures, we insert four groups of 
distinguished Americans, all acknowledged Christians, or men who have 
received their distinction from their Christian birth, education, and prin- 
ciples. The first is a group of distinguished philanthropists. We have 
selected these men from the large number of noble Americans whom we 
deem most worthy of honor as lovers of their race. 

The second is a group taken from the number of our great statesmen 
and orators, 

Tlie third is a group of celebrated American divines. They repre- 
sent the thorough Puritan and six different Christian denominations : 
and, taken together, they are distinguished among the hosts of Christian 
ministers who can be claimed exclusively by no church ; whose reputa- 
tion and influence as teachers of religion, and leaders of soul-liberty, make 
them truly nationaL 

The fourth is a group of civilians and warriors, whose oj^inions and 
acts have entered largely into the history of American jurisprudence 
and of the emancipation of the nation. Here also the choice has been 
from a large number of truly great and national men, with the idea of 
representing true Christianity, either direct and personal or generally 
diffused, from different periods of our history, and portions of our 
country. 

Our readers will discover that this volume, though not professing to 
present the full details of our country's progress, will answer the most 
valuable purposes of a new history of the United States, groujnng the 
more important events, and using them, with a large number of facts 
not in any of our histories, to present to the American people a truthful 
picture of the Great Republic as it is and ought to be. 

Among the most valuable works quoted in this volume, it gives us 
pleasure to mention Bancroft's and Hildreth's Histories of the United 
States ; Cooper's Naval History of the United States ; Greene's Histori- 
cal View of the American Revolution ; The Pulpit of the American 
Revolution; Sir Morton Pcto's Resources and Pi-ospects of America; 
Stevens's History of the Methodist-Episcopal Church ; Baird's Religion 
in America; Statistical History, by Goss; Partridge on the Making of 
the American Nation and on Democracy; The Power of Prayer, by 
Irenajus Prime ; The American Conflict, by Greeley ; America Before 
Europe, by Count de Gasparin ; Decisive Battles of the War, by Swin- 
ton ; The Eiglith Census of the United States, by Kennedy ; Our 
Country, its Trials and Triumphs, by George Peck, D.D. ; Mineral Re- 



ANALYSIS AND AUTHORITIES. 3 

sources of the United States, by J, Ross Brown and James M. Taylor ; 
and Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United 
States, by B. F. Morris, — a valuable " compilation," which the writer had 
not seen until half of the copy of this work, including the Preface, had 
been sent to the printer. The author would also gratefully acknowledge 
his obligations to Alexander Delmar, Director of the Bureau of Statistics 
at Washington, for important public documents; and to his friends, 
named in the proper places, for valuable papers contributed from their 
respective points of observation. If the authors of quotations have 
been inadvertently omitted in our notes of reference, we hope this gen- 
eral acknowledgment may be deemed sufficient. 

In addition to the above, the author has consulted God in History, by 
Reed ; God in History, by Gumming ; The Civil Policy and Civil War 
of America, by Draper ; Wyoming, its History and Romantic Adven- 
tures, by George Peck ; New-York Convention Manual, by Hough ; 
Appleton's American Cyclopaedia ; Grant and Sherman, their Campaigns 
and Generals, and Farragut and our Naval Commanders, by Headley; 
The Lost Cause, by Pollard ; The Women of the War, by Frank More; 
Putnam's Rebellion Record ; and a great variety of official documents 
and reports. 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODXJCTION. 

THE GOD OF NATIONS. 

PACE.- 

The God of the Hebrews ' . . . . 13 

The God of Ancient Gentile Peoples 14 

The God of Modern Nations 16 



PERIOD L — PREPARATION. 

CHAPTER I. 

THE DISCOVERT. 

The Old Northmen 20 

Columbus and the New "World 21 

The Wisdom of God above the Folly of Man 22 



CHAPTER II. 

THE COUNTRY PROVIDED. 

The Area of Freedom 25 

Zone and Climates 25 

Abundant Supplies for Future "Want 27 



CHAPTER III. 

COLONIZATION OVERRULED. 

France "Unsuccessful 31 

Spain meets with Insuperable Difficulties 32 

The English, Dutch, and Swedes controlled 34 



CHAPTER IV. 

ENGLISH SUCCESS. 

The Epoch and the First Colonists of "Virginia 36 

Despotism and Religion in Virginia 38 

6 



CONTENTS. 



Grave Errors 41 

God's Method 43 

African Slavery 45 

CHAPTER V. 

RELIGION AXD CIVIL LIBERTY IN VIRGINIA. 

Neither Clear nor Dark 4S 

Providence and Progress 50 

Christianity the Life-force and Organizing- I'ower of Liberty .... 52 

Liberty asserts her Rights, and advances 55 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE SOUTHERN GKOPP COMPLETED. 

Maryland 59 

Delaware 6'? 

Nortli Carolina Gt> 

South Carolina 71 

Georgia 76 

Review 80 

CHAPTER VU. 

A NEW ENGLAND EMERGES FROM THE OLD. 

Puritanism in England 85 

The Puritans become Pilgrims in Search of Liberty 91 

The Pilgrims have found Liberty 93 

CHAPTER Vni. 

COLONIZATION AND LIBERTY IN MASSACIICSETTS. 

The Men and the Time 102 

Plymoutli Colony 104 

Liberty reveals her Form and Strength 105 

Colonies increase ............ 107 

Christianity and Freedom in Massachusetts 112 

Limitations of Liberty in Massachusetts . . 1H> 

CHAPTER IX. 

THE NORTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. 

Maine 121 

New PLampshire 124 

Connecticut 128 

Rhode Island 130 

New York 138 

New Jersey 140 

Pennsylvania H2 

The Great West 147 

l'i-ovidencc and War-discipline • 149 



CONTENTS. 



PERIOD II. — INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAPTER I. 

MIND-BATTLES POINT TO A DISIN'TIIRALLED NATIONAL LIFE. 

The Right of Soil 152 

The Rights of Trade 156 

The Right of Representation and Free Legislation 158 

The Right of Taxation 161 

The Right of Free Speech, a Free Ballot, and a Free Press 163 

The Right of Constitutional Liberty, and of Union for the Common Defence . 107 

All these Rights denied, but never surrendered 173 

Struggles of Religious and Civil Liberty in America 182 

Accessory Forces 189 

A New Inspiration 200 

CHAPTER IL 

THE TIME CHOSEN SHOWS THE PROVIDENTIAL ADVENT OF 
THE NATIONAL LIFE. 

Historical Cycles must precede 208 

Despotic Governments and Imperishable Ideas 209 

The Grand Crisis of History 211 

CHAPTER III. 

WAR INDICATES AN HEROIC NATIONAL LIFE. 

Lexington and Bunker Hill . . 215 

Saratoga and Bennington 217 

Trenton and Princeton 222 

War on the Sea 225 

Cornwallis and Yorktown . 233 

The Heroism of the National Life . 243 



CHAPTER IV. 

PATRIOTISM DEMONSTRATES A SUSTAINED NATIONAL LIFE. 

Patriotism, British, and then American 247 

Patriotism in Office 250 

The True Inspiration of American Patriotism 252 

CHAPTER V. 

THE DECLARATION ASSERTS AN INDEPENDENT NATIONAL LIFE. 

Wise Deliberation and Diplomacy 255 

The Declaration 264 

Sui>erior Wisdom 263 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VI. 

DISCIPLINE INSURES A VIGOROUS NATIONAL LIFB. 

Trials from Poverty 274 

Trials from Disloyalty and Treason . . " 277 

Trials from Defeat 280 

Trials from a Spirit of Compromise . . • 284 

CHAPTER VII. 

lUSTORT RECORDS AN ACKNOWLEDGED NATIONAL LIFE 

The English aeknowledge American Independence 288 

European Governments acknowledge the new Nation ...... 291 

Would tiie American People acknowledge the Independence of the National Life ? 293 

CHAPTER VIII. 

TUE CONSTITUTION REVEALS AN ORGANIC NATIONAL LIFE. 

The Old Articles of Confederation 302 

The Federal Convention 306 

The Constitution formed 309 

CHAPTER IX. 

TRUE CHRISTIANITY AN INDESTRUCTIBLE NATIONAL LIFE. 

The Religious Element in the Formation of the Republic 320 

The Religion of the Nation ia Official Acts and Public Men .... 325 
The Religion of America constructs a Grand and Durable Government . . 332 



PERIOD III. — DEVELOPMENT. 

CHAPTER I. 

DEVELOPMENT OF POPULATION. 

Increase of Population 336 

Sources of Population 337 

Character of Population 338 

The American Race 342 

CHAPTER II. 

DEVELOPMENT OF LIBERTY. 

Personal Liberty 349 

Justice and Loyalty in Liberty 350 

Education and Religion in Lil)crty . 351 

Extent and S)>Iiere of Liberty 353 

CHAPTER in. 

DEVELOPMENT OF GOVERNMENT. 

A Popular Government 356 

A ReprcscnUitive Government 358 



CONTENTS. 9 

A National Government 360 

A Responsible Government 366 

A Strong Government 368 

CHAPTER IV. 

DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNAL BESOUBCES. 

Products of the Soil 376 

Manufactures and Machines 380 

Precious Metals 384 

Other Minerals and Ores 392 

CHAPTER V. 

DEVELOPMENT OF COMMERCE. 

Value of Exports 406 

Imports and Exports 408 

Internal Commerce 410 

Shipping • » . 413 

CHAPTER VI. 

DEVELOPMENT OF THE WAB-POWEB. 

Self-respect of the Nation 416 

Sandwich and Queenstown 419 

Naval Engagements 421 

Campaigns from the West and East 425 

Washington and Baltimore 429 

Plattsburg .431 

New Orleans 433 

CHAPTER Vn. 

DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 

Public Schools 438 

Sunday Schools 442 

Academies 446 

Colleges and Universities 448 

The Press 452 

Steam Navigation 455 

Railroads 457 

The Safety Steam-generator 461 

Telegraphy 463 

Architecture , 468 

Painting 470 

Sculpture 472 

Photography 476 



CHAPTER VIII. 

DEVELOPMENT OF MANHOOD AND HUMANITY. 

True Manhood 479 

Asylums for the Deaf and Dumb 482 



10 CONTENTS. 

Asylums for the Blind 484 

Asylums for the Insane 486 

Asylums for Idiots and Inebriates 490 

CHAPTER IX. 

DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL DEPEAVITT. 

Intemperance 492 

Licentiousness . 49.") 

Socialism and Spiritism 496 

Mormonism 499 

Corruption in Religion and Politics 504 

CHAPTER X. 

DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGION. 

The Protestant-Episcopal Church 513 

Congregational Churches 518 

The Baptist Church 523 

The Presbyterian Church 530 

The Methodist-Episcopal Church 537 

Other Churches 545 

The American Bible Society 552 

The American Sunday-school Union ......... 553 

T'he American Tract Society, Boston 554 

The American Tract Society, New York 554 

The American Seamen's Friend Society . . . . . . . . 550 

Young Men's Christian Association ......... 557 

The Great Revival 560 

Pervading Christianity . ........... 561 



PERIOD IV. — EMANCIPATION. 

CHAPTER I. 

AMERICAN SLAVERY. 

Men enslaved 564 

Mind subjugated 565 

(lOvernment inthrallcd 566 

Civilization fettered . 568 

The Press and the Pulpit bound 569 

CHAPTER n. 

THE GREAT MORAL CONFLICT. 

Christianity revolts 573 

Humanity pleads 576 

Justice denounces 579 

Political Parties temporize 581 

The Strain and the Recoil 583 

Another Grand Crisis in History .......... 587 



CONTENTS. 11 



CHAPTER in. 

THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 

Secession 590 

Treason and Rebellion 593 

Fort Sumter 598 

Providential Adjustments 601 

Bull Run 604 

Ball's Bluff 612 

Port Royal 614 

Roanoke Island 617 

Fort Donelson 619 

Forts Jackson and St. Philip 625 

'• The Monitor " and " The Merrimack " 631 

The Peninsula 634 

Antietam . 641 

Yicksburg 643 

Fredericksburg 646 

Gettysbui-g 648 

Shenandoah Valley 655 

Lookout Mountain 636 

The Bloody March to Richmond 659 

The Triumphal March from Atlanta to the Sea 662 

Richmond 663 

Christianity and the War 666 

Murderous Revenge 672 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE TRIUMPH OF r>IBERTY. 

The Great Proclamation 676 

Black Warriors 677 

The Victories of Blood and of Truth 679 

The Great Amendment 680 



PERIOD v. — MISSION. 
CHAPTER I. 

THE NEW NATION. 

Organic Unity and Regenerated Patriotism 686 

The Transition 687 

Impartial Suffrage 689 

Universal Education 690 

The New American Church 692 

The New American Manhood 694 



12 CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER n. 

THE GREAT REPUBLIC IN HISTORY. 

Republicanism passes out of its Experimental into its Historical Period . . 698 

The People, as Sovereigns, advance to the Rank of a First-class Power . . 700 

Population, and Influence Abroad 700 

The Nations of Earth acknowledge, respect, and trust the Great Republic . . 702 



CHAPTER m. 

GOD IS THE SOVEREIGN. 

Rebellion is Ruin 705 

Loyal Obedience is Safety and Success 706 

The United States a great Christian Power 707 

The Representative of Progress 709 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 



INTRODUCTION. 
THE GOD OF NATIONS. 

I PROPOSE to examine the history of the United States of 
America from a Christian stand-point. 

The divine administration of human affairs is a profound 
study. There is reason to believe that no event in that 
administration stands alone; that, however small or com- 
paratively unimportant, it must be in some way intimately 
related to the grand scheme of a general Providence. I 
am well aware that an effort to ascertain the position of the 
great American Republic in that scheme, and correctly inter- 
pret the acts of God in its origin, structure, and government, 
is a very grave responsibility; and I make th6 attempt with 
much self-distrust, but with humble dependence upon God 
for help. 

Our task requires careful attention to the teachings of his- 
tory in regard to the asserted rights of divine sovereignty. 

The Hebrew commonwealth as well as the Jewish church 
was a theocracy. The great Father sought thus to realize 
the highest idea of government among men. He appeared 
in personal form, revealing a glory infinitely above the glory 
of man. He uttered words of deepest tenderness and love, 
of highest wisdom and authority, that the people might be 
subdued by his grace, and awed by his power. He traced 

13 



14 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

their laws upon tablets of rock, and openly took upon him- 
self the vindication of their rights, and the punishment of 
their crimes, that they might know and love and fear their 
true and righteous Governor. 

The Hebrews, in their folly, became restless under this 
direct divine administration. Faith became unsteady, and 
national sins obscured the spiritual power in wdiich they had 
been accustomed to confide. From the example of sur- 
rounding nations, they were seized with an unconquerable 
desire for a human sovereign. Had it been the recognition 
of a human representative of divine sovereignty, there had 
been no curse in it. But as events showed, and God revealed, 
it was the practical rejection of Jehovah as the supreme 
civil authority of the nation ; and endless direftd calamities 
followed. "And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken to 
the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee : for 
they have not rejected thee ; but they have rejected me, that 
I should not reign over them." God permitted this uprising 
of human rebellion that its extreme wickedness might ap- 
pear. But he did not abdicate the throne : thereafter, as 
before, he asserted all the rights of unimpaired sovereignty. 
Let the summary judgments which fell upon the nation, 
the anointing and dethroning of kings, the slaughters and 
discomfitures in battle, the captivity in Babylon, and the 
destruction of Jerusalem, attest the fact, that the rebellion 
of man has no tendency to destroy or supersede the sover- 
eignty of God. 

THE GOD OF ANCIENT GENTILE PEOPLES. 

Special divine government does not exclude, but reveals, 
the general. It does not show the limitation, but the method, 
of governmental prerogatives. Mistaken inferences from his 
evident sovereignty over one nation are corrected by author- 
ity. In another connection, but conclusively here, St. Paul 
demands, " Is he the God of the Jews only ? Is he not also 



THE GOD OF NATIONS. 15 

of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also." Broadly and 
triumphantly it is asserted, as in the Psalms, " God is the 
King of all the earth." Grant that earthly potentates 
reject him, and attempt to usurp his throne : faithful his- 
tory reveals him still " the Lord of lords, and King of 
kings." 

The four great monarchies of the East filled up the space 
allowed them in human history ; and, one after another, the 
divine Sovereign laid them aside. The prophet of God fore- 
saw these startling events, and yet another of grander pro- 
portions and significance : "And in the days of these kings 
shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom w^hich shall never 
be destroyed ; and the kingdom shall not be left to other 
people, but it shall break in pieces, and consume all these 
kingdoms ; and it shall stand forever : " showing the con- 
summation of all special purposes in one great, general pur- 
pose, — the subordination of all anti-Christian civil powers 
to the rio;hteous rule of God's Messiah. 

So the giving of the ceremonial and civil law to the Jews, 
only organized preparatory events for the grand inaugura- 
tion of that universal government, whose laws of order 
were written on Sinai with the finger of God, and whose 
law of liberty was traced on Calvary in the blood of the 
Redeemer. 

The great Jehovah msibly exercised the rights of sover- 
eignty over Abraham and his descendants ; but he was none 
the less arbiter of events in Egypt and Assyria. The God 
who guided Israel through the sea and the desert and Jor- 
dan dashed down the walls of Jericho, and overthrew the 
vile idolaters of Canaan. The right to colonize the He- 
brews impUed the right to make summary disposition of 
the corrupt nations, whose crimes had forfeited all rights in 
the land " flowing with milk and honey." 

He whose sovereignty punished rebellious Israel brought 
proud Babylon into the dust. He whose justice over- 
whelmed guilty Jerusalem buried the dishonored glory of 



16 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

Tyre and Athens and Rome. Cyrus and Alexander and 
Tamerlane were as verily the chosen instruments of his 
sovereign power as Nebuchadnezzar, Antiochus, or Titus. 
He was no more a sovereign over the remnant of Israel 
than over the hosts of Sennacherib when 

" The Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, 
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed." 

The history of the divine government, as set forth in the 
Bible, and in contemporaneous records so far as they ex- 
tend, shows clearly that God claimed to be the Supreme 
Ruler of all nations, and that they rose and fell under the 
control of his omnipotent hand. 

THE GOD OF MODERN NATIONS. 

Because distinct acts of divine sovereignty are recorded 
in sacred history of ancient peoples and kingdoms only, is it 
hence to be inferred that modern nations have no God ? 
Did he assert his divine prerogatives over Palestine and 
Egypt and Rome, and renounce all control over England 
and France, Austria and Prussia, Russia and America ? 
Was he scrupulously exact to watch over the establishment 
of laws and dynasties, and punish national crimes, in olden 
times? and is he indifferent to the same great events amid 
the ongoings and upheavals of later days ? Was it only in 
the days of Saul and Rehoboam, Xerxes and Alexander, 
Hannibal and Caesar, that it could be truthfully said, " For 
promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, 
nor from the south : but God is the Judge ; he putteth down 
one, and setteth up another " ? 

To affirm this, it would be necessary to show, with respect 
to rights, that asserted acts of divine control were then a 
usurpation ; or that the human race has somehow since out- 
grown the obligations of allegiance to the great Sovereign 
of the universe; or that the government of God is based 
upon accidental facts, and not upon unalterable relations. 
Who would dare to assert either ? 



THE GOD OF NATIONS. 17 

To say this with respect to probabilities, it must be 
assumed that the divine nature has changed ; so that he has 
lost his regard for the right, or his fatherly concern for his 
suffering children on earth ; so that he has now no purpose 
to avenge the victims of an unjust judge, to arrest the 
proud career of oppression, to execute justice and judgment 
in the earth. It must be shown that his known interfer- 
ences, by omnipotent crushing power, with nations and sov- 
ereigns whose iniquities rose to heaven, were the result of 
accident or impulse rather than of essential rectitude and 
immutable principles. What man would dare to be so irrev- 
erent as to say this ? 

To affirm that the government of God over nations is un- 
necessary, it must be assumed that men as individuals need 
divine law, supervision, and aid, but, when organized into 
communities, they lose their dependence and responsibility ; 
that it is of the utmost importance to have divine control 
over the minutest acts which bear upon the individual, but 
none whatever over those momentous volitions which realize 
or crush the dearest hopes of millions ; that the moral ele- 
ment perishes as soon as the life of society becomes organic, 
and indefinitely powerful for weal or woe ; that, as individ- 
uals, our fellow-citizens are responsible to God, but as legis- 
lative, judicial, and executive officers, they are wholly unac- 
countable to him ; that a government can have no God, no 
religion, no Bible, no prayers, no account to render to '^ the 
Judge of all the earth ; " that the safety of the nation is 
wholly in the wisdom and patriotism of men, or subject to 
the mad ambition of demagogues, and the accidental whirl 
of political campaigns, with no pitying eye looking down 
from heaven, no hope from the interference of omnipotent 
justice, no retribution awaiting the blood-thirsty tyrant. 
He who has such ideas of God and man, of goodness and 
sin, might assert that there is no necessity for practical 
divine sovereignty over nations. 

Finally, to deny the certainty of just as all-seeing and 



18 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

all-pervading a control over modern as over ancient nations, 
one must ignore all prophecy and all history. See what 
subduing of kingdoms appears, what breaking-down of op- 
pression, what turning and overturning, what arraignments 
of rulers, what "gnawing of tongues for pain," what out- 
beamings of the Sun of Righteousness, showing that the 
grand prophetic era hastens when "the kingdom and do- 
minion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole 
heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the 
Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and 
all dominions shall serve and obey him." See with what 
unerring accuracy, as in past ages, history is literally record- 
ing the events of prophecy. 

As certainly, therefore, as it is now as ever the right of 
God to reign ; that he is now, as in ancient times, the common 
Father of our guilty race, the unchangeable " Judge of all 
^e earth ; " that his great and free volitions are controlled 
by principles of unerring righteousness; that men are, of 
themselves, blind and reckless in regard to the dearest inter- 
ests of man, and wickedness is intensified by power, so that 
there is actually no hope for the down-trodden, but in God, — 
as sure as the verification of prophecy by inevitable history, 
so certainly is Jehovah to-day the Sovereign of all nations ; 
and the American Republic is responsible to him. 




(5 ® [L y Ka © 



TTUj-'ijSJl.:ffan. H. Y. from. an. old P' 



PERIOD I. 

PREPARATION. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE DISCOVERY 

" The history of the world is nothing but the development of the idea of freedom. 
Philosophy concerns itself only with the glory of the idea mirroring itself in history, and 
the process of its development. That history is this process of development, and realiza- 
tion of spirit, is the justification of God in history." — Hkgel. 

The old civilization required a new life. The race de- 
manded an accession of ideas, a new theatre for the exer- 
cise of its powers and the realization of the divine purpose 
in the creation. Up to near the close of the fifteenth cen- 
tury, human governments had revealed little more than the 
struggles of liberty with the repressions of despotism ; and 
God evidently intended a new and nobler development of 
the human race, a larger sphere for the manifestation of his 
providence and the exposition of his plans of sovereign con- 
trol over individuals and nations. 

He had given to man, as man, a strong love of liberty, 
the due expression and proper growth of which required 
room for free and independent action. Amid the despotic 
governments of the Old World, this would have been a moral 
impossibility. Such contiguity to old corrupt forms would 
have resulted inevitably in the infection of any new system, 
however just in itself On the side of oppression, there was 
power; and a novel theory must have room and oppor- 
tunity to experiment. 

19 



20 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

Precisely adapted to the necessities and mission of a free 
government, God had reserved a continent in which the 
savage state of its predator}^ tribes invited the coming-in of 
a high and purifying civilization. Without forgetting the 
just rights of the native Indians, which the white man was 
sacredly bound to respect, it is philosophically and histori- 
cally certain that Infinite ^Yi^;dom chose this land for the 
home of a broader liberty and higher Christian civilization 
than had been before known among men, and decreed the 
gradual occupancy of the Western World by the represen- 
tatives of a new social order. 

Upon the authority of ancient Icelandic manuscripts, 
brought forward by the distinguished antiquarian of Copen- 
hagen, Professor C. Rafn, it is confidently affirmed that the 
old Northmen discovered this continent some five hundred 
years in advance of Columbus. Greenland was discovered 
in 983 by Erik the Red ; and it is asserted that his son, 
Leif the Fortunate, in the year 1000, with thirty-five hardy 
mariners, landed at Helluhmd (Newfoundland), Markland 
(Nova Scotia), and Vineland (New England). He is said to 
have remained in the latter place for some time, where he 
erected large houses, called after him Leifbudis (Leif's 
booths). Two years later, Thorwald, a distinguished brother 
of Leif, prosecuting these daring discoveries farther south, 
received his death-wound from the natives, and desired to be 
buried at the Cape, where he thought it "pleasant to dwell ; " 
supposed to be " Cape or Point Aldeston, not far from the 
Pilgrim city, Plymouth, State of Massachusetts, where the 
fearless Thorwald, shortly before the sad termination of life, 
chiselled in Runes the exploits of his gallant crew."* 

In 1006, it is alleged that Thorfinn Karlsefne, "a man 
destined to become great," an Icelandic merchant, sailed to 
Greenland, Avhere he married " Gudrid, the widow of Thor- 
stein (a third son of Erik the Red);" after which, in three 
vessels, accompanied by his wife, and a crew of a hundred 

* History of Scandinavia, by Prof. Paul C. Sinding, of Copenhagen, pp. 77, 78. 



THE DISCOVERY. 21 

and sixty-five men, he sailed to Vineland, where Gudrid 
" bore him a son called Snorre, who was the very first child 
of European parents born in America." 

It would seem that these " o-rim-visao-ed sea-kinsrs of the 
North " continued their explorations, and attempts at settle- 
ments, down to 1347. But, by some strange influence of an 
invisible power, they disappeared from the continent. God 
threw a veil over it again until the plans of his wisdom 
should mature. He shut it up from the further gaze of the 
avaricious European until the fulness of the time was come ; 
and then he produced the man, the idea, the impulse, which 
led to its discovery. 

COLUMBUS AND TUB NEW WORLD. 

Who can fail to trace the evidences of the Divine in the 
history of Columbus ? Whence came the splendid poetry 
of that conception, which gave to him another world in the 
ideal before the knowledge of the real had become practica- 
ble ? Why was he so fir in advance of his age and contem- 
poraries as to give him the reputation of a madman, not 
among the low and the vulgar alone, but among scholars, 
and courts far above him in opportunities and learning ? 
Whence that lofty heroism, that indomitable perseverance, 
which knew no danger; which defied. poverty, jealousy, and 
the boldest combinations of secular and ecclesiastical power? 
It was not human. It was too elevated and far-reaching, 
too patient and enduring, too potent in resisting and wear- 
ing out opposition, too fruitful in expedients, and creative 
in resources, to admit of the idea for a moment. God only 
could have furnished such amazing foresight, such superhu- 
man energies. He felt the stirrings of divinity within him, 
and claimed that he was inspired for his great mission of 
discovery. Still unaware of the grand designs of that Provi- 
dence which guided him through all his wonderful career, 
he was, in his sphere, as verily the chosen instrument of 



22 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

God as Moses or Joshua or Elijah. Heaven directed the 
winds that filled his sails and brought him to the unknown 
land. What he had discovered he did not know ; what im- 
pulses he had given to thought and enterprise, what new life 
he had poured into the mind of his age, he by no means 
understood. How much more was necessary to the realiza- 
tion of the plans of Providence, and who would be the hon- 
ored agents of continental discoveries, he could not tell ; nor 
was it in any way important. He had fulfilled his mission. 
He Avas not to be the successful founder of empire. He 
was not to wear the diadem of royalty. Neither heir nor 
kindred was to be the inheritor of the vast domain which 
rose up dimly before him. This was God's realm, and he 
would take the charge of its great future. Columbus could 
receive his discharge from cares and from earth. He was 
henceforth immortal. 



THE WISDOM OF GOD ABOVE THE FOLLY OP MAN. 

It is intensely interesting to observe the control of superior 
power over the devices of men for the accomplishment of 
high providential purposes. The success of Columbus aroused 
the spirit of enterprise; and navigators from different nations, 
with ideas wholly their own, embarked for new discoveries. 
But how very absurd were their views ! how blind they 
were with respect to their true mission ! 

Portugal and Spain were moved by cupidity to adven- 
turous expeditions in search for gold ; but God used their 
hardy mariners to reveal other lands in the Western oceans. 
A Papal bull had divided the world of discovery between 
them, assuming original proprietorship of unknown as well as 
known portions of the globe ; but God roused the spirit of 
exploration in another quarter. 

John and Sebastian Cabot sailed in 1497, under the au- 
spices of England, to look for land, but especially for a north- 
western passage to Asia. It was not material what were their 



THE DISCOVERY. 2.'i 

views. They might be wild and irrational: but God conducted 
them to the coast of Labrador, and made use of tlieir enter- 
prise to establish the claims of England to the first discovery 
of the continent; thus indicating a purpose to give the domi- 
nant influence in the New World to the Anglo-Saxon race. 

In 1498, the younger Cabot, a truly great mind, moved 
by the same blind idea of the north-western passage, was 
available in the divine plans to open to the mind of Eng- 
land new sources of wealth in his further discoveries, of 
which he was never to become the proprietor. Why, let us 
ask, were these illustrious navigators not permitted to live 
and die in Venice, or to prosecute their adventures as Italians? 
The answer plainly is, The Italian people were not suited in 
the eyes of God to the task of founding the great empire of 
freedom. 

In 1551, the Portuguese thought they saw great gain in 
the returns of the ships of Gaspar Cortereal, freighted with 
Indians, torn from their hunting-grounds, and doomed to in- 
exorable slavery ; but Providence intended and used the 
voyages of this daring mariner to reveal to the world some 
seven hundred miles of the North-American coast. 

Three years later, it appeared that God had given to Ameri- 
go Vespucci the idea of a new continent, and sent him out to 
explore its hidden lands, and report, as he did, to Lorenzo de 
Medici, the accession of an additional quarter to the globe ; 
to which, as the only desirable reward of his enterprise, he 
had the honor of giving his name. 

France, in 1523, must also undertake the discovery of " a 
western passage to Cathay ; " and to John Verrazzani of 
Florence was conceded the honor of this fresh attempt to 
gain the treasures of that fabled land for royal coffers. This 
was upon the surface ; but a profounder purpose appeared 
in conducting him to North Carolina, and far along the 
coast southward and northward, where " the groves, spread- 
ing perfumes far from shore, gave promise of the spices of 
the East, and the color of the earth gave promise of abun- 



24 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

dunce of ii-old." As God willed, he broiio;ht to the knowledore 
of the world the spacious harbors of New York and Newport, 
and the rugged shores of New England ; but no French mon- 
arch was ever to reign over this wonderful coast, the pur- 
poses of which were 37'et wrapped in profoundest mystery. 

The brave and reckless Ferdinand de Soto could march 
with the air of a conqueror through Florida, as he had 
done through Peru ; and advance to the Alleghanies and Ihe 
great Mississippi, as he did in 1542 : but he could bequeath 
no permanent empire to the Spanish throne. The grand 
Valley of the Mississippi was reserved by a higher Sover- 
eiscn for the hosts of freedom in the ffreat future. 

So of every act in the scene of discovery, revealing at 
the same time the narrow earthly schemes of human ambi- 
tion, and the stern reservations and broad purposes of the 
Infinite Mind. Whether thirst for gold or lust of power, am- 
bition for fame or the vagaries of fevered brains, prompted 
the efforts of kings and of daring navigators, human plans 
were tolerated and developed just so far as the profound 
purposes of God would allow, and no farther, and then de- 
feated, or pressed into the service of the exalted power, 
which in wisdom infinite rose above and ruled over all ; and 
the divine plan of human freedom became the controlling 
law of discovery upon the Western continent. So God or- 
dained, and history reveals. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE COUNTRY PROVIDED. 

" It is the goodliest soil under the cope of heaven ; the most pleasing territory of the 
world. The continent is of a huge and unknown greatness ; and very well peopled and 
towned, though savagely. The climate is so wholesome, that we have not one sick sinca 
we touched the land." — Lane, 1585. 

If the time had come for the recognition of higher capa- 
bilities of freedom and moral power in the human race, God 
would certainly furnish territory large enough, and sufficient 
in natural resources, for the development of a great and 
numerous people. This he could do, and he only. "The 
earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and 
they that dwell therein." His omnipotent power called this 
fflobe out of nothing^ when " the mornino^ stars sano; too-ether, 
and all the sons of God shouted for joy." " He stretcheth 
out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth 
upon nothing." 

He, as sovereign" Proprietor, could dispose of these conti- 
nents and islands according to the laws of his infinite wisdom. 
He might at his discretion assign them temporarily to the 
wild beasts, or to roaming savages, or daring offenders against 
his sovereign laws ; but, when the purposes of his providence 
required it, he would surely order their possession by the 
people designed to illustrate his creative power and his 
administrative wisdom. 

AREA, ZONE AND CLIMATES. 

The vast extent of the Western World favored the idea 
of establishing here a model nation, with the opportunity of 

4 26 



26 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

working out, as an example to the nations, the problem of 
government by the people. It was not necessary that the 
whole of this domain should be given at once. There must be 
room for enlargement ; and the gradual extension of territory 
has accorded precisely with the exigencies of the Republic. 
Not including the recent accession of Russian America, it 
has reached 3,250,000 square miles : of land alone there are 
3,010,370 square miles, or 1,926,686,800 broad acres! This 
is a "territory nearly ten times as large as that of Great 
Britain and France combined ; three times as large as France, 
Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, 
Holland, and Denmark, together ; one and a half times as 
large as the Russian Empire in Europe ; one-sixth less only 
than the area covered by the fifty-nine or sixty empires, 
states, and republics of Europe ; of equal extent with the 
Roman Empire or that of Alexander." 

This is ample for the present. It is large, like the plans 
of God ; and how utterly vain it has been thus far, and 
hereafter must be, for man to oppose these plans ! The great 
Proprietor of earth will give his favored nation room. 

The position at first assigned us on the continent strikingly 
illustrates the divine wisdom. Had our lot fiUen in extreme 
latitudes, a symmetrical and full development of body and 
mind would have been impossible. We are at a proper 
remove from the eternal frosts of the north and the burn- 
ing zone of the south. Taking a vast sweep through the 
heart of a continent, from ocean to ocean, there are no 
advantages possible to a cultivated people which are not 
included in the country provided. 

So wisely and beneficently has God chosen our inherit- 
ance for us. Sir Morton Peto says, " As regards climate, the 
whole of the United States is within the temperate zone. 
The settler, however, in selecting his residence, can have any 
temperature he chooses, from St. Petersburg to Canton. He 
may settle in a cold or warm climate, according to his health, 
his habits, his predilections, or the object which he seeks, 



THE COUNTRY PROVmED. 27 

whether he desires to farm, to fish, to hunt, to graze cattle, 
to cultivate garden-lands or vine-yards. He can select the 
shores of the lakes or of the ocean, live on or above the 
tidal waters of magnificent rivers, and have his choice of 
mountain or valley." 



ABUNDANT PROVISION FOR FUTURE WANT. 

Nothing more strikingly indicates the mind and presence 
of God than clear and extended foresight. Anticipating the 
future by minute and ample arrangements for the demands 
of an immense population is the work of Omniscience alone. 
This our great Father has done everywhere 5 a manifestation 
of paternal beneficence which the inhabitants of earth in all 
lands are under sacred obligations to recognize, and answer 
with unfailing gratitude and love. 

It is eminently so in this land of liberty. Who can look 
out upon our extended and productive soil, our towering 
mountains and Eden vales, our magnificent lakes and rivers, 
and not feel that they are the creation of Infinite Power for 
the most benevolent ends ? In their immense proportions and 
exhaustless resources, in their wealth of beauty and over- 
powering grandeur, they speak of God so distinctly, that all 
must hear. 

If Providence designed to build up a great nation of free- 
men, he would demand of them a marked development of 
taste, and imbue them with a love of the beautiful and the 
sublime. But this would imply arrangements for the grati- 
fication and development of the finer and more elevated 
feelings of natural and cultivated humanity. A large, un- 
interrupted plain would not have been suited to this pur- 
pose. A land of morasses, and ditches of stagnant pools and 
dik,e6, , would want the inspiration which so high a purpose 
implies. But no element of beauty or sublimity, no natural 
source of inspiration, is lacking here. Graceful hills and 
grand mountain -ranges break up the monotony of the 



28 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

plains ; vastness and variety everywhere expand and elevate 
the soul. Who can ascend one of our lofty heights, and 
look out upon the panorama below and around him, without 
feelings of wonder and delight? Whether you gaze upon 
the extended shores of New England, the vast prairies of 
the West, the gardens of the South, the forests of the North, 
or the valleys and hills of the Pacific coast, you behold a 
wealth of beauty and grandeur utterly beyond the power of 
description. 

The field of natural science is immense and inexhaustible. 
If God had designed, as he surely did, that the American 
people should be especially thoughtful and scholarly ; that 
choice minds should here develop their best powers of obser- 
vation, analysis, and generalization, — he could not have more 
distinctly indicated his plan than by the endless variety in 
every department of natural history distributed through this 
large territory. The lover of flowers, the entomologist, the 
{»-eolofnst, the mineraloi^ist, indeed all students of Nature, find 
here their most intense interest gratified. 

How benignly did God in his works of old adjust all this 
to the culture and development of a refined people ! How 
evidently did he, moreover, design that our vast lakes and 
navigable rivers and extended coast should call out the com- 
mercial activity necessary to the highest civilization ! Dr. 
Baird, in his " Religion in America," well says, " No con- 
tinental country in the world, of equal extent, can compare 
with the United States in regard to advantages for commerce. 
On the north, the great lakes, and their outlet the St. Law- 
rence, drain portions of ten States and Territories, which 
include 112,649 square miles; on the east, fifteen States 
touch the Atlantic, and the portion of the country which 
slopes in that direction contains 514,416 square miles; the 
Pacific slope contains 766,000 square miles ; wdiile the four 
States and a half which border on the Gulf of Mexico con- 
tain 325,537 square miles. This leaves to the great Central 
Basin, drained by the Mississippi and its branches, no less 



THE COUNTRY PROVIDED. 29 

than 1,217,562 square miles, in which are akeady at least 
10,000,000 inhabitants." Our shore line reaches 33,069 
miles, and " the extent of our navigable rivers is more than 
40,000 miles." 

How clear also is the divine purpose that the mechanical 
exigencies of the coming ages here should be furnished with 
materials and inducements to render available the strongest 
propensities for invention and discovery, affording to the use- 
ful arts their highest development, and providing that the 
American mind should lead the world in the great depart- 
ments of steam and electricity ! 

What resources of agriculture, what quantities of the 
precious metals, of coal, iron, and timber, were produced here 
long ages before they would be wanted, that when this goodly 
land should swarm with an industrious, enterprising popula- 
tion, there should be no want of bread, or valuable exchanges, 
or materials for comfort and toil needed for the highest prog- 
ress and destiny ! 

We mean not that any of the natural advantages enumer- 
ated in this chapter are restricted to this country : but they 
are here in a degree of perfection, in a richness of variety, 
and upon a scale so vast as to indicate the largest designs of 
a beneficent Creator with resrard to the nation to be estab- 
lished here. The immigrants with Newport affirmed that 
" heaven and earth seemed never to have agreed better to 
frame a place for man's cooimodious and delightful habita- 
tion." 

"Take four of the best kingdoms in Christendom," said 
Sir Thomas Dale twenty-six years later, " and put them all 
together, they may no way compare with this country, 
either for commodities, or goodness of soil." 

Let two contrasts suffice to place our views upon this gen- 
eral subject in the strongest light. Russia, the most power- 
ful despotic government on the globe, must forever suffer 
from the severity of her climate and her vast fields of ice. 
What but empire itself would her emperor not give for the 



30 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

single harbor of New York or of San Francisco, with sea 
room for commanding the commerce and fighting the battles 
of the world ? Is there no special Providence in shutting 
up the greatest rival power on earth within the frozen 
North, while the great oceans of the East and West, and 
finally of the globe, furnish sea room for the nation of free- 
men ? 

England, the great representative of the transition state, 
the power through which free principles are to pass out to 
the nations of Europe and the East, has extensive colonies 
and vast territory ; but there is a wide difference between 
her remote and scattered provinces and the compact ex- 
tended domain of American freedom. 

Now, let it be remembered that all these ample provisions 
and adjustments were made in the remote past for a people, 
and order of civilization, known only to Omniscience, and how 
clear the evidence that the Infinite Mind has prepared this 
country for some notable progress in the history of the race, 
and the manifestation of his power and glory in the exercise 
of his own sovereignty ! 



CHAPTER m. 
COLONIZATION OVERRULED. 

How quick was the love of gain to assume that a new 
world was thrown open to its adventurers; that whether 
the discovered land were ancient India or Ophir, or a suc- 
cession of islands or a continent, it must be seized as the 
rightful possession of craving selfishness to fill up the coffers 
of individuals, of companies, and of monarchs, with shining 
gold and precious gems ! But how distinctly did Providence 
say. as colony after colony came to this virgin land, " I have 
not chosen you " ! It reminds one of the scene in the house 
of Jesse, when the prophet of God was there to anoint a 
king. One after another, the sons of this Bethlehemite 
passed by ; but the elect of Jehovah was not there. From 
the shepherd's field came up at last the ruddy boy who 
was the chosen monarch of Israel's hosts. Thus passed the 
greedy throngs who thought to claim this magnificent in- 
heritance, only to be whelmed by the surges of disaster 
until " there was none of them." 

FRANCE UNSUCCESSFUL. 

Cartier, the gallant navigator of gallant France, could 
resolve to colonize New France in the region of the St. Law- 
rence, and in 1535 take his departure with absolution and 
the benediction of the bishop ; but he must be defeated by 
influences against which no human foresight could provide. 
Roberval could feel the elevation of his commission from 
Francis I. as " lord of the unknown Norimbza, and viceroy, 

31 



32 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

with full regal authority " * over New France ; but he must 
be thwarted by contentions with his predecessor and rival, 
Cartier. Fifty years later, the Marquis de la Roche would 
try it again, but entirely fail. Chauvin and Pontgrave would 
make the effort in IGOO, but without success. Champlain 
could found a settlement, but no French nation. The French 
monarch could cede by patent the whole Atlantic coast, from 
the future Philadelphia to Montreal, to the noble Calvinist 
De Monts, with religious toleration for the persecuted Hu- 
guenots ; but hostile savages, fierce winds, and shipwrecks, 
with successive discouragements to all future attempts of 
sovereign and adventurers, would deny to the French people 
the permanent occupancy of the future territory of freedom. 
We mourn the tragic end of the colony of French Protes- 
tants in Carolina attempted under the auspices of the great 
Admiral Coligny, and we execrate the cruel Roman-Catho- 
lic bigotry which doomed them to indiscriminate slaughter ; 
but it was not possible that they should establish French 
nationality here, nor that their murderers should ultimately 
profit by their enormous crime. The Huguenots would at 
length find a home in the bosom of the free Republic. 

SPAIN MEETS WITH INSUPERABLE DIFFICULTIES. 

Spain was heroic, and covetous of empire, and would defy 
all hardships to gain it in the New World. Look at this 
desperate struggle against the plans of Providence. 

Columbus discovered America in 1492, for so God willed ; 
but neither he nor his successors could make it a Spanish 
province, nor convert it into a continent of Romanists. The 
pope, as we have seen, commanded the division of " the 
undiscovered world " between Portugal and Spain ; but the 
Power above would not sufler the order to be obeyed. 

The valiant Ponce de Leon, from his discovery of Florida 
in 1513, dazzled with cliarms of wealth and power, struggled 

* Bancroft, i. 22. 



COLONIZATION OVERRULED. 33 

with unparalleled energy for eight years to effect a perma- 
nent settlement, in the vast territory called' by that name, 
on the Atlantic sea-board ; but an Indian arrow sent him to 
Cuba to die. 

The bewildering ambition of the reckless Narvaez, in a 
similar attempt five j^ears later, overwhelmed him and his 
comrades with still more signal disaster. 

In 1520, Lucus Vasquez de Ayllon, with the cruel purpose 
of capturing Indians to be used as slaves on St. Domino-o 
plantations, discovered a fertile coast, which promised afflu- 
ence and dominion; and obtained from the Spanish monarch 
the right to conquer and govern '-Chicora," the future South 
Carolina: but calamity and disgrace terminated his proud 
career. 

Who can read without exciting interest the romantic 
stoi\y of Francisco de Coronado, seduced by the flilse accounts 
of tlie Franciscan friar Marcus de Niza, mo vino; out from 
Mexico with his grand army to search for the seven great 
cities of '•'• Cibola" and the fabled wealth of mighty princes, 
enduring incredible hardships, traversing the wilds of Colo- 
rado, and the Valley of the Del Norte, over the regions of 
vast future States, large and rich enough for empires, and 
then reporting as he did to the Emperor Charles V. that 
" the region was not fit to be colonized " ? Who can trace 
the history of this brave man, without reaching the convic- 
tion that he was designed by Heaven as an explorer, while 
his nation would not be permitted to appropriate his dis- 
coveries ? 

And with what feelings of wonder, and even pity, do we 
follow the daring career of Ferdinand de Soto, seeking for 
wealth and glory in the great Valley of the Mississippi, 
dreaming of conquests and dominion, wearing out his heroic 
men and his own iron constitution, at last bowino; his stab- 
born will to the only Power he could not defy, and sinking 
beneath the turbid waters of the great river, without estab- 
lishing the permanent control of his nation over a single 



34 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

acre of the land to be required in after-ages for the develop 
ment of the Great Eepublic ! 

Spaniards could become great discoverers and great con- 
querors on the Western hemisphere; they could effect settle- 
ments and establish governments which would remain for a 
period longer or shorter, as Providence willed : but they could 
on no account annex to the Spanish monarchy the regions 
set apart for "the union" of freemen, or hold their own 
colonists to loyal obedience, against the instincts of inde- 
pendence which would ultimately give law to the continent. 

On the 8tli of September, 1565, the bigoted Catholic Philip 
II. " was proclaimed monarch of all North America ; " but 
God did not sanction it. St. Augustine, by more than forty 
years the oldest town in the United States, was founded in 
the same year: but it did not grow and become great like 
other cities of the Republic; it could not be permanently 
Spanish; nor could the founding of the distant Santa Fe and 
the establishment of New Mexico sixteen years later, under 
the indomitable spirit of the Franciscan friar Augustin Ruyz, 
change the ultimate current of history. Santa Fe would 
in due time be the capital of a great republican State. 

THE ENGLISH, DUTCH, AND SWEDES CONTROLLED. 

God discriminates between men and occasions as well as 
nations. The English were to be the founders of empire 
here; but they could not begin successfully with a system of 
heartless avarice. The daring attempts of Sir Humphrey 
Gilbert and his half-brother Sir AV alter Raleigh mny suffice 
as specimens of the discipline through which the nation 
would learn its wrongs, and be led gradually to success. The 
former mi<i;ht erect the standard of Britain over the mixed 
peoples at the hshing-station of Newfoundland, then sink to 
his grave in the ocean ; while the latter, after a most heroic 
connection with American enterprise, would become a victim 
of sovereign caprice, be dragged to the Tower of London, 
and then to the block of the executioner. 



COLONIZATION OVERRULED. 35 

The Dutch, m 1610, could establish a brave working colony 
on the river discovered by the adventurous Hudson, and ex- 
tend New Netherlands into the reQ:ion of the Delaware and 
the Connecticut ; but the States-General would ultimately 
resign the territory and the people to their predetermined 
independence and the legitimate government of the United 
States of America. 

The Swedish monarch and his great prime minister could 
form large plans of colonial power and grandeur in America ; 
but the rich territory settled at so much expense was not to 
be " New Sweden," but an important integral part of the 
Great Republic. 



CHAPTER IV. 

ENGLISH SUCCESS. 

AVe now come to a most important period in the prepara- 
tory history of the United States. Two grand representative 
colonies will soon appear on the continent. Both will have 
noble spirits as their leaders; both will have brave truth and 
damaging errors in their theories of man and of liberty. 
They will test the strength of aristocracy^ on the one hand, 
and of democracy on the other. One will bring out the 
power of despotism and caste to grapple with the inherent 
rights of man ; the other, the spirit of liberty to contend 
with usurpation and repression. The one including the 
most grievous wrongs will begin first. Virginia shall have 
thirteen j^ears the start of Massachusetts. Moreover, her 
land shall be rich, and her climate mild and attractive; while 
the land of the Pilgrims shall be rugged, and its winters 
severe. Chivalry shall be sustained by royal favor and am- 
ple wealth : Liberty shall be a fugitive from royal o})pression, 
and shall land on its rock-bound coast destitute an'.l unpro- 
tected. Then the eyes of two hemispheres for moie than 
two hundred and fifty years shall watch the race. 

THE EPOCH AND THE FIRST COLONISTS OF VIRGrNlA. 

The times were both threatening and auspicious. The 
Reformation had broken up the foundations of Popery in 
England ; but tlie Popish and Protestant tendencies began to 
appear in politics. The bigoted James saw no safety but 
from Prelacy, and no formidable danger but from Puritanism. 

36 



ENGLISH SUCCESS. 37 

The noble sons of religious liberty who had served Elizabeth 
with loyal devotion were superseded, and began to look 
abroad for their future. The art of printing brought new 
light to the age. It was time for the permanent colonization 
of the New World by the Ano;lo-Saxon race to beii;in. 

We now catch a glimpse of the original material for an 
English colony in Virginia. They were " noblemen, gentle- 
men, and merchants, in and about London," " London adven- 
turers." "Edward Maria Wingfieid, a grovelling merchant of 
the west of England," * was the first president of the coun- 
cil. '^ Of one hundred and five on the list of emigrants, there 
were but twelve laborers, and very few mechanics." Bui 
Providence ordered that the noble and gallant Capt. John 
Smith and the faithful Robert Hunt should be the representa- 
tive men of State and Church. '• Gorges, a man of wealth 
and rank," and Sir George Popham, Lord Chief Justice of 
England, would represent the aristocratic pretensions of the 
future South ; and '• vagabond gentlemen and goldsmiths " 
would seriously interfere with the vigorous administration 
of the heroic Smith. "When you send again," he wrote, 
" I entreat you rather send but thirty carpenters, husband- 
men, gardeners, fishermen, blacksmiths, masons, and diggers- 
np of trees' roots, well provided, than a thousand of such 
as we have." Other settlers came, some better, but, let us 
honestly hope, none worse. As especially noteworthy, ninety 
women, ''agreeable persons, young and incorrupt," came 
'• at the expense of the company, and were married to its 
tenants, or to men who were able to support them, and who 
willingly defrayed the costs of their passage." This experi- 
ment was so successful, that, next year, " sixty more were 
despatched, — maids of virtuous education, young, handsome, 
and well recommended. The price of a wife rose from 
one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty pounds 
of tobacco, or even more." llow admirably simple, and 
yet how evidently providential, this method of founding 

* Bancroft, i. 120-124. 



38 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

virtuous families, and building up the social fabric of 
America ! 

DESPOTISM AND RELIGION IN VIRGINIA. 

There was doubtless something of native independence 
in the daring adventures of navigators and explorers who 
found their way to the New World. But loyalty to sover- 
eigns restrained and directed it. The jealous eye of the 
asserted divine right of kings was everywhere. The earth 
l)elonged to them ; and the only question was, how it should 
be divided between them. The right of soil, whether in the 
form of islands or continents, was in the monarch ; and he 
might grant it to his loyal subjects in such quantities and 
upon such terms as he pleased. Charters and rights might 
be conceded and revoked at his royal pleasure ; and, how- 
ever meritorious the discovery, whatever sacrifices were 
made by the colonists, however exhausting the toil required 
to subdue and cultivate the soil, the people were all the ser- 
vants of the crown ; and, under such regulations as he should 
be pleased to make, the ultimate benefits must inure to him. 

Additional colonists were about to embark for Virginia, 
and the rights of the crown must be carefully guarded, 
'■• Thus the first written charter of a permanent American 
colony which was to be the chosen abode of liberty gave to 
the mercantile corporation nothing but a desert territory, 
with the right of peopling and defending it; and reserved 
to the monarch absolute legislative authority, the control of 
all appointments, and the hope of ultimate revenue. To the 
emigrants themselves it conceded not one elective franchise, 
not one of the rights of self-government. 

" The summer was spent by the patentees in preparations 
ibr planting a colony, for which the vainglory of the king 
foimd a grateful occupation in framing a code of laws ; an 
exercise of royal legislation which has been pronounced in 
itself illegal. The superior council in England was permitted 
to name the colonial council, which was constituted a pure 



ENGLISH SUCCESS. 39 

aristocracy, entirely independent of the emigrants whom they 
were to govern ; having power to elect or remove its presi- 
dent, to remove any of its members, and to supply its own 
vacancies. Not an element of popular liberty was introduced 
into the form of government." * 

In May, 1569, three years later, the company received a 
new charter from the king. But " the lives, liberty, and 
fortune of the colonists were placed at the arbitrary will of 
a governor, who was to be appointed by a commercial cor- 
poration. As yet, not one valuable civil jDrivilege was con- 
ceded to the emigrants." f 

How impossible that this should last forever ! How inevi- 
table the inquiry, Is this right? And, if it made a subject of 
despotism tremble to think it, he nevertheless would think, 
" The king is a man, — only a man ; and I also am a man." 
How natural and powerful' the feelino; of the stru^-o-lino: im- 
migrant, " I am glad I am so far away from the centre of 
this despotism ! It cannot reach me quite so easily. This 
country is very large ; the air is very free and the land abun- 
dant here. I wonder if some portion of this grand inheritance 
isn't mine ! At least, do I not own myself?" 

You can see, in the very forms of the patents and charters 
secured by the early settlers, this yearning for the rights of 
a real second party ; the petitions, if not demands, of this 
other high contracting power. It must be very deferential, 
obsequious even ; but you can almost hear it sa}^, " If you 
will deal fairly with me, I will go ; if not, I will not." Gov- 
ernors, proprietors, corporations, did not think, it is true, of 
any considerable concessions to those below them ; but they 
did show some disposition to take care of themselves, which 
was something in the cautious advance of personal rights. 

Let it, however, be remembered that the aristocratic forms 
of civil government were fully sustained by ecclesiastical 
power. The monarch, in the creed of the Church, was " king 
by the grace of God." The organic life of the Church was 

* Bancroft, i. 122, 123. t Ibid., i. 137. 



40 ♦ THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

interwoven in every fibre with the life of the State, and de- 
manded the exercise of ecclesiastical authority from the sov- 
ereign, as the supreme head of the Church ; and no devotion, 
either of bigotry or patriotism, is so strong as religious devo- 
tion. The British government and British aristocracy un- 
derstood this well ; and, thouujh it seemed an accident that 
the impetuous Henry VIII. had become the sovereign ecclesi- 
astic of the realm, the force of this fact in the British Con- 
stitution was ever thereafter too highly valued and too 
powerful to be waived or modified, except under a pressure 
that was practically irresistible. And Virginia, the control- 
ling and representative colony of the South, had, as we have 
seen, received this spiritual despotism as a part of the abso- 
lute government under which she was to found a great State, 
and had undertaken the impossible task of harmonizing it 
with the vindication and development of personal and civil 
liberty. Military authorit}' had the right to compel con- 
formity to the Episcopal Church. Indifference was punish- 
able Avitli stripes, and infidelity with death, under the de- 
cisions of courts-martial. 

In 1619, a legislature met in the Old Dominion for the first 
time. It was opened by prayer, as all decent legislative 
bodies should be. 

"The Church of Enii^land was confirmed as the Church of 
Virginia. It was intended that the first four ministers should 
each receive two hundred pounds a year. All persons what- 
soever, upon the sabbath days, were to frequent divine service 
and sermons both forenoon and afternoon ; and all such 
as bore arms, to bring their pieces or swords." * 

In 1621, a new constitution was granted; and, "simultane- 
ously with this civil constitution, an ecclesiastical organiza- 
tion was introduced. The plantations were divided into par- 
ishes, for the endowment of which contributions were col- 
lected in England. A glebe of a hundred acres, cultivated 
by six indented tenants, was allowed by the company to each 
clergyman ; to which was added a salary, to be paid by a 

♦ Bancroft, i. 155. 



ENGLISH SUCCESS. 42 

parish tax. The governor was instructed to uphokl pubhc 
worship according to the forms and discipHne of the Church 
of England, and to avoid ' all factions and needless novel- 
ties/ — a caution, no doubt, against Puritan ideas, at this 
time much on the increase in England, and not without par- 
tisans even in Virginia." When "the first extant colonv 
statutes were enacted," " the first acts, as in many subsequent 
codifications of the Virginia statutes, related to the Church. 
In every plantation, there was to be a room or house ' for the 
worship of God, sequestered and set apart for that purpose, 
and not to be for any temporal use whatsoever ; ' also a place 
of burial, ' sequestered and paled in.' Absence from public 
worship, '■ without allowable excuse,' exposed to the forfeiture 
of a pound of tobacco, or fifty pounds if the absence contin- 
ued for a month. The celebration of divine service was to 
be in conformity to the canons of the English Church. In 
addition to the usual church festivals, the 22d of March was 
to be annually observed in commemoration of the escape 
of the colony from Indian massacre. No minister was to be 
absent from his parish above two months annually, under 
pain of forfeiting half his salary ; or the whole of it, and his 
cure also, if absent four months. He who disparaged a 
minister without proof was to be fined five hundred pounds 
of tobacco, and to beg the minister's pardon before the congre- 
gation. The ministers' salaries were to be paid out of the 
first-gathered and best tobacco and corn ; and no man was 
to dispose of his tobacco before paying his church-dues, 
under pain of paying double. The proclamations formerly 
set forth ao-ainst drunkenness and swearino; were confirmed 
as law ; and the church-wardens were to present all such 
offenders." * 

GRAVE ERRORS. 

With our present information, it is easy to see the strange 
mixture of grave error with elevated truth in this ecclesias- 

* Hildreth, i, 126, 127. 



42 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

tical system. It is sad to behold minds so great grappling 
with the serious questions of man's relation to God and eter- 
nit}^, with tlie misleading idea that the human will can be 
coerced, and human beings made devout, and fit for heaven, 
by State authority. But an established religion, which makes 
the courts the judges of orthodoxy; which compels attend- 
ance at church ; which exacts from the people the support 
of the parish b}" arbitrary taxes ; which gives to the govern- 
ment all authority to create priestly orders and preferments, — 
wholly disregards the great fiicts, that all piety must include 
the voluntary surrender of the heart to God ; that nothing 
is truly Christian which is not free ; that whatever in hu- 
man action is merely the will of another is entirely without 
a moral element; that a man forced to religious observ- 
ances is so far merely a machine, with no more right to 
the immunities of religion than the steam-engine. Upon 
the contrary, so far as the attempt results in a sense of per- 
sonal injury, of an unjust interference with the rights of 
the soul, angry resentments are sure to follow, and men are 
made worse by the system which proposes to secure their 
highest interests. 

True, there is room for law in the protection of religion, 
in guarding the rights of religious assemblies, in preventing 
disturbances on tiie Lord's Day, and suppressing social dis- 
order, so fir as it interferes with good neighborhood, and 
tends to destroy the religious and social rights of commu- 
nities ; but here the jurisdiction of the courts and the 
power of the executive must end. However perverse men 
may be in rejecting the true good, though, indeed, they may 
go headlong to ruin in the abuse of their freedom, still God 
permits it; and man cannot, if he would, forcibly prevent it. 
In the great work of personal humiliation, of reverence and 
worship, of submission and trust, of preparation for death 
and eternity, every man must act for himself To his own 
master he must stand or fill. 

It is the unquestionable duty of every man to attend 



ENGLISH SUCCESS. . 43 

divine service on the Lord's Day, when it is not physically 
or otherwise impracticable ; but, if the act is to be religious, 
he must go freely, not by coercion. The support of rehgion 
is undoubtedly a high duty: but every man must giv^e "ac- 
cording as he purposeth in his heart, not grudgingly or of 
necessity; for God loveth a cheerful giver." 

All these positions are very clear from our present stand- 
point, and were doubtless seen dimly in the days of Ameri- 
can colonization by many sound and penetrating minds. 

But the grand error was in a religion established by law. 
It was not that the English people, who had been born and 
bred Episcopalians, should be Episcopalians in Virginia. It 
was most natural that the forms of service to which they 
were accustomed in England should be preferred in the New 
World. It was doubtless so far healthful and wise as the 
free action of choice preferred those modes of worship; just 
as other modes, adopted in other colonies, were best suited 
to their habits of thous-ht and feelino;. At least, it was not 
the province of civil law to forbid nor to enjoin these forms. 
To establish Presbyterianism by law in Virginia, thereby 
excluding the right of the people to become Episcopalians, 
and to build up there the institutions of their venerated and 
beloved church, would be a grievous wrong, but no greater 
than to ordain Episcopalianism as the only lawful religion of 
New England or any other portion of the land. 

god's method. 

It may be deemed strange that God did not so far over- 
rule the prejudices of man as to secure freedom of religion 
in America from the first. This, however, is not the divine 
method. He allows the tares and the wheat to o-row too:eth- 
er. He shows his own sacred regard for human freedom in 
suffering the wrong to exert its power until hope of reform 
is gone, and the time has fully come for restraint or retribu- 
tion. Then his judgments are conclusive. 



44 ' THE GREAT REPUBLIC. • 

It is, moreover, by gr.ippling with error that truth reveals 
and augments its power. There were the asserted preroga- 
tives of spiritual despotism, but tlie instinctive demand for 
the rights of conscience rising up firmly against them. There 
was the coerced attendance at church, but the gospel of lib- 
erty rolling out from the pulpit. There were the pomp and 
display of ceremonial worship, but the pure word of God 
saying to the people, " Humble yourselves in the sight of the 
Lord, and he shall lift you up." There were legal exactions 
of tithes, but the revelation showing the moral value of 
free, liberal giving. There was worldly conformity; but there 
was also the new life, in all its purifying exalting power, 
quietly working from within, under the agency of the Holy 
Ghost, seeking to develop to the gaze of men the great 
transformation and complete emancipation of the race de- 
signed to realize the purposes of God in the creation. 

Let these two forces exist together in the trial period of a 
people. Let them exhibit their wrong and right, their vile- 
ness and purit}^, in contrast. Let them grapple till the supe- 
rior power of the true and the good shall appear. Give them 
time. Evil is exceedingly tenacious in this world. Its eradi- 
cation mast be the work of ages. God is the example of 
patience and active energy, and '* God is never in a huny." 
Through the vast cycles of time, he maketh the wrath of 
men to praise him, and the remainder he doth restrain. 
Even we have lived loniji: enou2:h to see how wise and safe is 
this great plan of Providence, and to know wdiat dispositions 
he would make of the attempt to establish a church by law 
in the sphere of the future Republic of liberty. There was 
no need of violence in resisting this usurpation. The periods 
of preparation and inrlependence would not end till it was 
utterly overthrown by the action of power silent as the laws 
of gravitation, but omnipotent as the arm of Jehovah. The 
great privilege of free worship would then be all the more 
valuable for the contrast ; while the success of the right, in 
its own vindication and independent development, would 



ENGLISH SUCCESS. 45 

be a sublime spectacle to angels and to men. In the mean 
time, grave responsibilities would attach to the leaders of< 
oppression, against the will of God, now becoming so clear 
and emphatic in its revelations. 

SLAVERY IN THE SOUTH. 

We must mention here one more restriction of human 
rights, — the most intense form of despotism known among 
men : we mean American slavery. 

The spirit of this ancient wrong to humanity was inherent 
in the British aristocracy. Essential caste elevated the privi- 
leged classes above the common obligations of society, and 
imposed corresponding burdens upon laborers. The relations 
of employers and employed, landlord and tenant, were, to a 
large extent, those of master and servant ; and this bondage, 
as the effect of inevitable dependence, descended to succeed- 
ing; o-enerations. 

The laws of " indented tenants" adopted in this miniature 
and pretentious aristocracy were slavery in essence. It was 
simply an invention to avoid labor, and obtain for gentle- 
men the avails of labor without just compensation. I wish 
therefore distinctly to deny that the slave system was forced 
upon the South by the cupidity of dealers in human flesh 
and souls, and affirm that it was most evidently of English 
origin. It is hence eas}^ to see how naturally the imbecile 
natives were subjected to unwilling and unrequited toil, and 
reduced to cruel slavery. 

It is also easy to explain the fact, that when Las Casas, 
from blind philanthrop}', sought to mitigate the horrors of 
Indian servitude by simply changing the victims, the slave- 
dealer had no difficulty in finding a market. Continental 
despotism in the West-India Islands and elsewhere was not 
left to enjoy a monopoly of this nefarious traffic. Hence, 
when twenty negroes were brought to Jamestown, in Au- 
gust, 1619, by a Dutch trading-vessel, to be exposed to sale 



46 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

like brutes, it was " by the free consent and co-operation of 
the colonists themselves," who purchased and held them, 
"not as indented servants, but as slaves for life." * 

True, it had come to be the general conviction in England 
and upon the Continent, that Christians ought not to be re- 
duced to slavery ; but captives in war and accredited pagans 
were not included in this exemption. It may thus be ex- 
plained how English traders in captured victims could have 
immunity from punishment in Christian lands, and how 
even sovereign princes could assert claims to the enormous 
profits of the slave-trade. 

The development of this system of flagrant injustice was 
very gradual, and is not to be traced here, as it belongs to 
another part of this work ; but we desire sufficient attention 
to it now to show the startling fact of another powerful ac- 
cession to the strength of despotism in the great representa- 
tive colony of the South. 

* Hildreth, i. 119. 



CHAPTER V. 

RELIGION AND CIVIL LIBERTY IN VIRGINIA. 

"Not democracy in America, but free Christianity in America, is the real key to the 
study of the people and their institutions." — Goldwin Smith. 

It would seem that a liard problem had been raised, — hard 
for man, but not too hard for the solution of Infinite Wisdom. 
With what intense interest do we now inquire. How will God 
himself release these fettered minds? How shall the riu-hts 
of man emerge from this sea of oppression ? Let us not be 
in haste. It is God's question, and he takes time. 

Let us turn our attention to the gradual development of 
those principles, which, daring this preparatory period, were 
quietly to assert their vitahty and rights, and ultimately re- 
veal their power to constitute and maintain a free republic. 

In all the history of colonization thus far traced, we see 
the evident hand of God. He overruled the plans of men 
in rejecting such colonists as were not adjusted to the pur- 
poses of freedom. He chose the nation and the race of men 
suitable to found an empire. Romanists were not allowed 
the ascendency in the land appropriated to the future 
" United States." Protestantism included freedom of con- 
science, and would ultimately assert the rights of man in 
church and in civil government. God, moreover, suffered the 
vileness of immoral adventurers to destroy them, and steadily 
brought forward the representatives of virtue and piety. 
England was a religious country. The Reformation, under 
Henry VIII. and Elizabeth and Edward, had asserted the 
rights of conscience so far as to throw off the incubus of 

47 



48 THE GREAT EE PUBLIC. 

Popery. James I. had given the people that marvel of in- 
spiration, the English version of the Holy Bible. Religion 
was the law of the land, and it was Protestant. The strug- 
gles of bloody Mary and her bigoted husband Philip II. could 
in no wise re-establish the spiritual despotism of the sover- 
eign pontiff. Wickliffe and Cranmer, with their compeers in 
godhness, had given a clear voice and majestic elevation to 
the pulpit, and claimed high and holy rights for worship and 
the press. The laws of England, and especially the Bible 
and the Book of Common Prayer, had given to the nation, as 
such, a God, a revelation of immortality and of redempt'on 
by Jesus Christ, and the grand idea of intercourse wdth 
heaven. How important this adjustment to the purposes 
of a new civilization in the Western hemisphere ! 



NEITHER CLEAR NOR DARK. 

Grant that the standard of vital godliness was low ; that, 
with the multitudes, religion was matter of form ; and that 
the English aristocracy, generally, were grievous sinners: 
still there were many notable exceptions ; and a sense of 
God and eternity pervaded the nation, and went everywhere 
with British colonists. 

With respect to the inner life, the doctrines of liberty, and 
the personal rights and responsibilities of men, it must be 
confessed, truth and error were strangely commingled. The 
high assumptions of prelacy and of monarchy were anti- 
Christian ; and there were interpretations of the Thirtj'-nine 
Articles which seemed to interfere with the freedom of the 
will. But the will would assert its own freedom, and, in 
America, go on with the grand problem of human rights 
with a manly independence of thought and expression here- 
tofore but little known in the Old World. While, therefore, 
we may not expect to llnd a perfect theology nor a true 
system of government fully matured and strongly developed 
in the infancy of these colonies, we shall find the germs of 



RELIGION AND CIVIL LIBERTY IN VIRGINIA. 49 

true religion and civil liberty everywhere, fresh and vigorous 
with a new life. 

" The advancement of the divine glory, by bringing the 
Indians and savages resident in those parts to human civil- 
ity and quiet government, was alleged as the principal mo- 
tive of James's grant." The conversion of the Indians was 
inserted in the charters and fundamental laws of all the 
great pioneer colonies as a prime object of their grand un- 
dertakings. When, therefore, in 1585, the English sought 
to conciliate and improve the natives, they depended largely 
upon the book of inspiration. '• In every town which Hariot 
entered he displayed the Bible, and explained its truths. 
When, in 1619, measures were adopted ' towards the erect- 
ing of a university and college,' it was also enacted, that, ' of 
the children of the Indians, the most towardly boys in wit, 
and graces of nature, should be brought up in the first ele- 
ments of literature, and sent from the college to the work 
of conversion ' of the natives to the Christian religion." 

True, there was much that was strangely inconsistent with 
this lofty missionary purpose ; but the felt obligation was 
acknowledged, and this acknowledgment was in evidence of 
the pervading religious convictions of the parent country. 

The patent of Raleigh was made to conform strictly to the 
Christian faith, according to the Church of England. The 
virtuous Lord Delaware would not assume the duties of 
his high othce in Virginia without a sermon from his chap- 
lain, and the most solemn public recognition of Providence ; 
and this was in harmony with public feeling in England. 

Virginia must be taught the wrong of profligacy and 
crime ; and God denied her the longer presence and high 
administrative abilities of the noble and gallant Smith. The 
colonists, four hundred and ninety at the time of his de- 
parture for England, 1609, were "in six months, by indo- 
lence, vice, and famine, reduced to sixty ; and they were so 
feeble and dejected, that, if relief had been delayed but ten 
days longer, they also must have utterly perished." 



50 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

PROVIDENCE AND PROGRESS. 

Jamestown seemed about to be deserted. These miserable 
people embarked for England ; but, at the mouth of the 
river, they met Lord Delaware with additional colonists and 
abundant supplies. " The fugitives," says Bancroft, our great 
national historian, '-bore up the helm, and, favored b}^ the 
wind, were that night once more at the fort in Jamestown." 
And now mark. "It was on the tenth day of June, 1610, 
that the restoration of the colony was solemnly begun by 
supplications to God. A deep sense of the infinite mercies 
of his providence overawed the colonists who had been 
spared by famine; the emigrants who had been shipwrecked, 
and yet preserved ; and the new-comers, who found wretch- 
edness and want where they had expected the contentment 
of abundance. The firmness of their resolution repelled de- 
spair. ' It is,' said they, ' the arm of the Lord of hosts, who 
would have his people pass the Red Sea and the wilder- 
ness, and then possess the land of Canaan.' Dangers avoided 
inspire trust in Providence. ' Doubt not,' said the emigrants 
to the people of England, ' God will raise our state, and 
build his church in this excellent clime.' " At the beginning 
of the day, they assembled in the little church, which was 
kept neatly trimmed with the wild flowers of the country ; 
and, " after solemn exercises of religion, they returned to 
their houses to receive their allowance of food." 

Soon thereafter came the noble Gates with " six ships," 
and " three hundred immigrants, a hundred kine, as well 
as suitable provisions," and assumed the government. What 
could a people, trained under the discipline of Providence, 
say better than " God bless England, our sweet native coun- 
try " ? what more appropriate than to give this invocation 
of affectionate gratitude a prominent place in the service for 
morning and evening prayer ? 

About this time (August, IGll), "on the remote frontier, 
we catch a glimpse of Alexander Whitaker, the self-denying 



EELIGION AND CIVIL LIBERTY IN VIRGINIA. 51 

' Apostle of Virginin,' assisting in ' bearing the name of God 
to the Gentiles.' " How striking the indication of deep re- 
ligious convictions and a high providential mission ! 

Glancing back for a few years, we see the hand of God in 
the rush of tender sympathy which brought the young and 
beautiful Pocahontas to the rescue of Capt. John Smith, 
the true founder of Virginia. We behold the war-club of the 
stern Powhattan suspended over her fragile form as she pro- 
tects the 2i;reat white brave from instant death. Soon as-ain 
we see this youthful Indian princess threading her wav 
through the dark forests to save Jamestown from its im- 
pending doom ; and we say, Surely she was God's chosen 
instrument for the purposes of his own gracious providence. 

Now we see '^•Johu Rolfe, an honest and discreet young 
Englishman, moved, as he thinks, by the Holy Ghost, to labor 
for the conversion of the unregenerated maiden." — "And 
soon, in the little church of Jamestown, — which rested on 
rough pine columns fresh from the forest, and was in a style 
of rugged architecture as wild, if not as frail, as an Indian's 
wigwam, — she stood before the font, that out of the trunk 
of a tree had been hewn hollow like a canoe, ' openly re- 
nounced her country's idolatry, professed the fliitli of Jesus 
Christ, and was baptized.' " Soon she is the bride of the 
zealous Rolfe \ a beautiful princess, " the first Christian ever 
of her nation." Thus did God reveal the real humanity of 
the aborio-inal American tribes, their capabilities of cultiva- 
tion and religion, and the mission of Christianity in w^inning 
their confidence. Thus did he rebuke the murderous injus- 
tice of converting them into enemies, slaughtering them on 
their own hunting-grounds, and selling them as bondsmen to 
luiprmcipled tyrants. Thus did he teach the world that a 
purpose higher than the gratification of wicked avarice and 
mad ambition had controlled him in founding a new empire. 
Men were free and responsible. They could, for a time, 
resist the plans of Divine Benevolence ; but grave lessons 
of wisdom arose from the progress of providential plans. 



52 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

"Wisdom is the legitimate result of discipline in the hands 
of God, however stern it may be. 

RELIGION THE LIFE-FORCE AND ORGANIZING POWER OF LIBERTY. 

Let US now pause to consider that religion is an active 
principle, a powerful divine life, in the souls of men. One 
of its first experimental effects is to impress the individual 
with a strong sense of responsibility, with a conviction of 
duty which no other person can discharge. It rouses and 
releases the conscience ; and, upon the exercise of true faith 
in the Redeemer, it imparts liberty from the bondage of 
sin. The great preacher demonstrates the divinity and 
verity of his mission by thus proclaiming " liberty to the 
captive." 

The world is long in coming to the comprehension of the 
nature and scope of experimental religious freedom. Slowdy, 
how^ever, the great truth is reaching the general intelligence, 
that spiritual deliverance from the bondage of sin is the 
clear announcement of God's will that there should be no 
oppression in any part of the world ; that attempts to fetter 
the souls and deny the just rights of men are offensive to 
him ; and that each new man in Christ Jesus is invested with 
prerogatives of liberty which make him superior to oppres- 
sion and torture and death. 

It is impossible that this should be a dormant power. It 
is in itself a high inward sense of justice. It does not, in- 
deed, prompt to rebellion even against usurpation and un- 
righteous laws. It is the profoundest submission to the great 
rule of right, and results in due consideration for the laws 
of public order represented by " the powers that be." But 
injustice is seen to be against God ; and the true mind, regen- 
erate, learns at length that the rights of man and the rights 
of God are inseparably connected. The assertion and vin- 
dication of these rights must be contingent with respect to 
time and circumstances, and must especially depend upon 



RELIGION AND CIVIL LIBERTY IN VIRGINIA. 53 

the progress of thought and the providential indications of 
the age. But they are felt in a new form, and commence a 
life of new vigor, from the moment of regeneration. They 
may be suppressed by cruel power, or restrained from motives 
of high discretion ; but they have a voice, and the ears of 
souls will not fail to hear it. The quiet acts and utterances 
of truth and right and holy laws, the meekness of suffering 
without yielding to wrong, and especially the sublime com- 
posure and triumph of martyrdom for the right to worship, 
teach the profoundest lessons of liberty. It is thus that the 
influence of true Christianity, silently it may be, but power- 
fully, extends the spirit and the area of freedom ; and thus 
that we are to explain the slow but certain progress of civil 
and religious liberty together in England, and upon a larger 
scale in America. 

We must also recognize the blendino; of true reli2:ious 
principles and power with all other civilizing forces, in pro- 
ducing that subtle and pervading sense of right which all 
men feel, and are sure in some form or other, sooner or later, 
to manifest. This is, in part, the religion of creation, and the 
direct work of the great Creator. Man emerges from bar- 
barism under its living power. This is the source and reason 
of the uprisings of individuals and masses in forms of even 
savage resentment for wrongs which have been felt but un- 
defined in the ages gone by, and have produced contortions 
as of a man in his sleep scorched with fire, who springs up 
at the moment of consciousness, and rushes he knows not 
how nor where. 

Long thinking and enduring ultimately give form to this 
pervading invisible life-force of the nations. Revealed re- 
ligion comes in to eliminate its vices, purify its feelings, exalt 
its motives, and direct its energy. Divine communications 
from heaven give it moderation, wisdom, and irresistible pow- 
er ; and thus the unity of the great moral forces which are 
struggling for the emancipation of the race is found in God. 
The incarnate Son is revealed as the great Liberator of 



54 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

inthralled humanity ; and the cross, wrested from the bloody 
hand of spiritual despotism, is held aloft as the truest, no- 
blest emblem of freedom to the race. 

All this has its unequivocal expression in the gradual de- 
velopment of American liberty. If faithful history has made 
one thing clearer than another, it is that Christianity can 
never retain its purity or its vital power, when, as in the hands 
of Rome, it is forced into the service of oppression and per- 
secution. From a captivity and perversion so violent and 
vile it must be rescued before it is or can be the Christian 
religion again. And, as a part of the same clear historic 
revelation, we have come to understand that no attempt at 
the establishment of a sound and durable free government 
can be successful in the assertion of atheism, in the rejection 
of the Holy Bible, or "trampling under foot the Son of God." 

Whoever, therefore, should attempt to account for the 
growth of liberty in England, and its final vindication and 
triumph in America, without recognizing the vital organizing 
power of Christianity, would inevitably fail. As well explain, 
and demonstrate the circulating system of the human body 
without the blood, or the perfecting of grain or fruits with- 
out the vitalizing forces of atmospheric air. 

It is therefore to identify the life-power of this great sys- 
tem of freedom that we have brought forward the small and 
larger manifestations of true religion in the British nation, 
and the earlier history of her first great colony in the New 
World. It was necessary first to recognize the presence of 
this holy principle, and mournfully to acknowledge its un- 
natural alliance with the spirit of oppression ; and we must 
wait yet longer for a full manifestation of the liberating 
power of Christianity, a truer development of the great 
spirit of the Reformation. In this place it has been our pur- 
pose to present faithfully those indications of the influence 
of this supernatural power which really existed, and could 
alone account for such progress as had already been made in 
that portion of our territory destined for ages to be the 



EELIGION AND CIVIL LIBERTY IN VIRGIISnA. 55 

battle-ground of the great antagonist forces of freedom and 
despotism. 

LIBERTY ASSERTS HER RIGHTS, AND ADVANCES. 

As early as the days of Edward, in 1547, "the ascendency 
of Protestantism marked the era when England began to 
foreshadow her maritime superiority." Under the fearless 
Elizabeth, the same uprising of true Christianity " quickened 
the spirit of nationality, and gave a new impulse to the peo- 
ple." This impulse was never lost. It stirred the hearts of 
noble pioneers, and gave vigor to emigrants. It struggled 
with monarch and corporation until it extorted reluctant 
but most valuable concessions. Protestantism colonized and 
ultimately moulded Virginia. Let us step forward to the 
month of April, 1619. 

Sir George Yeardly arrived, and took charge of the colony, 
with " commissions and instructions from the company for 
the better establishing of a commonwealth." He announced 
" that those cruell lawes by which the ancient planters had soe 
long been governed were now abrogated, and that they were 
to be governed by those free lawes which his majesties sub- 
jects lived under in England ; " and, in order " that the planters 
might have a hande in the governing of themselves, yt was 
granted that a generall assemblie shoulde be helde yearly 
once, whereat were to be present the governor and counsell, 
with two burgesses from each plantation, freely to be elected 
by the inhabitants thereof; this assemblie to have power to 
make and ordaine whatsoever lawes and orders should by 
them be thought good and profitable for their subsistance." 

Sir George, therefore, "sente his summons all over the 
country, as well to invite those of the counsell of estate that 
were absente, as also for the election of burgesses ; " and 
on Friday, the thirtieth day of July, 10 19, a day memorable 
in American colonial history, this grand free legislative assem- 
bly met in James City, and God was solemnly recognized 
by prayer. 



56 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

Their " great charter " sent over by Sir George Yeardly, 
these keen-eyed, heroic freemen would not attempt " to cor- 
rect or control ; " but they would cautiously provide for re- 
dress " in case they should find aught not perfectly squaring 
with the state of the colony." Brave, noble men ! How 
brio;ht these luminaries of freedom shine throuorh the dim 
haze of two and a half centuries ! 

" When the question was taken on accepting * the great 
charter,' we are not surprised to find that ' it had the general 
assent and the applause of the whole assembly,' and, let 
it be observed, ^ with thanks for it to Almighty God, and to 
those from whom it had issued in the name of the burgesses, 
and the whole colony whom they represented, the more so 
as they were promised the power to allow or disallow the 
orders of the court of the London company." * 

This was a little alarming to royal despotism. The office 
of treasurer was vacant. There might be necessity for as- 
certaining whether this disloyal freedom had not gone too 
far, even in the London Company ; and the king determined 
to settle the question by sending in four nominees for treas- 
urer. Astonishing! They are all rejected ; and "the Earl 
of Southampton, the early friend of Shakspeare, was elect- 
ed " ! " Having thus vindicated their own rights, the com- 
pany proceeded to redress former wrongs, and to provide 
colonial liberty with its written guaranties." Praise God ! 

Another test must come up from the colony. Argall had 
pronounced sentence of death. The case went home on 
appeal. The Earl of Warwick, and other powerful friends 
of Argall, took this occasion to instruct these presuming 
American Englishmen " that trial by martial law is the no- 
blest kind of trial, because soldiers and men of the sword 
were the judges;" but " this opinion was reversed, and the 
riglits of the colonists to trial by jury sustained." How 
grand the triumph ! 

Two years later, — namely, on the 24th of July, 1621, — 

* Buiicrort, i. 154-156. 



RELIGION AND CIVIL LIBERTY IN VIRGINIA. 57 

the colony received from the London Company, by the hands 
of Sir Francis Wyatt, " a written constitntion. The pre- 
scribed form of government was analogous to the EngUsh 
Constitution ; and was, with some raodific-ations, the model 
of the systems which were afterwards introduced into the 
various royal provinces. Its purpose was declared to be, 
' the greatest comfort and benefit to the people, and the pre- 
vention of injustice, grievances, and oppression.' " * By this 
important historical document, " the system of representative 
government, and trial by jury, became in the new hemisphere 
an acknowledged right;" and, on this ordinance, Virginia 
erected the superstructure of her liberties. Thus Freedom 
asserts her rights, and advances. 

* Bancroft, i. 158. 



CHAPTER VI. 
THE SOUTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. 

We have found in Virginia the true character of that 
great conflict between freedom and oppression which char- 
acterized the preparatory period of American history. In 
this leading colony we have, therefore, sought our principal 
materials for illustrating this struggle as it went on in the 
southern portion of the first "United States." 

We have seen the gradual development of the plans of 
Providence in that splendid country, and especially the evi- 
dent purpose to bring the true and the false, the good and 
the bad, in the forms of civil government, together, that they 
might try their strength, and exhibit their resj)ective attrac- 
tions and repulsions in marked contrast. 

We have found how anxiously vicious principles and op- 
pressive institutions sought the alliance and support of reli- 
gion, and in what forms of misinterpretation and misdirection 
it is possible for Christianity to be combined with the most 
flagrant injustice; and, again, how promptly and vigorously 
all its pure principles and living energies move to the sup- 
port of true liberty ; nay, rather, how inevitably Christianity 
appears as the only soul and vitalizing force of liberty. 

We are now to see these facts and developments upon a 
more extended scale. Wo must, therefore, look into the 
groupings around this pioneer colony, and see what addi- 
tional evidence they afford of God in America, — planting 
colonies, placing and training men, forming institutions, and 
controlling; antaii-onisms, for the ultimate formation of the 
Great Republic of Liberty. 



THE SOUTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. 59 

MARYLAND. 

William Clayborne, first a surveyor for the London Com- 
pany, then member of the Council, and then Secretary of 
State, was the pioneer of Maryland. Virginia held in proud 
esteem the fine harbors on the Chesapeake Bay, with the 
navigable waters flowing into it, and intended to make this 
portion of the coast the scene of an active and lucrative 
commerce; and Clayborne had commenced the settlement 
of the country, near the mouth of the Susquehanna, in the 
interests of Virginia. 

But Sir George Calvert, a true nobleman, who was intro- 
duced to public life by the distinguished Sir Robert Cecil, 
had become deeply interested in American colonization. He 
was a Catholic, and evidently entertained the idea of found- 
ing somewhere on the Western continent a State in which 
his church could enjoy at least the benefits of free tolera- 
tion. The first attempt was made in Newfoundland : but 
the French were annoying, the clime was inhospitable ; and, 
notwithstanding the immense sums of money lavished upon 
the undertaking, it was a notable failure. 

Why should they not go to Vii^ginia ? There was ample 
territory, and a most genial climate. But Virginia was Prot- 
estant. Her great pioneers had some knowledge of the 
grasping, oppressive power of Rome ; and they intended to 
exclude her intolerance by an intolerance of their own 
scarcely less censurable. However, Lord Baltimore would 
go to Virginia, and see for himself But he must take the 
oath of allegiance ; and that was stringently anti-Catholic. 
He refuses, and understands that there is no reasonable 
prospect of forming a Roman-Catholic colony within the 
jurisdiction of Protestant Virginia. 

Fortunately for him, James had dissolved the London 
Company, and cancelled the Virginia patents, resuming the 
asserted rights of the crown over the soil. He had a warm 
side toward the Catholics, and it was not difficult to per- 



60 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

suade the monarch to grant a State to Lord Baltimore and 
his heirs out of the territory claimed by Virginia; and he 
saw proper to select her most important and valuable sea- 
coast. The charter was issued, the boundaries were fixed ; 
and in honor of Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henry IV., 
and wife of Charles I., the province was named Maryland. 

These facts are important to our historical discussion. 
Catholic Maryland is claimed as the first province of Ameri- 
ca affording free toleration to religion. By remarkable dis- 
criminations in its favor, extraordinary concessions of liberty 
were made to it by the crown. 

The second Lord Baltimore, to whom this patent was 
given, was evidently a man of enlarged and liberal views, 
beyond the restricting precedents and principles of the 
biii-oted sect to which he belong-ed. He seems to have con- 
ceived ideas of liberty in advance of his times. There is little 
room to doubt, that, from an English stand-point, he had fully 
taken in the fact that Roman intolerance could be made the 
precedent and apology for discrimination against the Catho- 
lics ; and that, under certain circumstances, the question 
would be, not so much which is right, as which is strongest. 
Relying, doubtless, upon the moral power of Rome finally 
to triumph over and utterly exterminate all heretical gov- 
ernments, he took the liberty of practically but quietly dis- 
senting from the settled traditional policy of the sovereign 
pontiff, and determined that religion should be free in Mary- 
land. We must assume, either that Lord Baltimore was pro- 
foundly versed in the art of dissimulation so fundamental 
to Romanism, or that he was better than his church. The 
great providential fact, however, is, that the toleration of a 
most artful and damaging perversion of religion carries with 
it full freedom for true Christianity, and opens the way for 
that unrestrained competition of the right with the wrong 
which Rome of her own accord never dares to invite, 
and which is sure, finally, to result in the triumpli of the 
right. The danger of free religious toleration in Maryland, 



THE SOUTHERN GHOUP COMPLETED. 61 

including Romanism as the dominant churcli, was, tlierefore, 
only apparent. On the contrary, it was a necessity of Amer- 
ican liberty, and the glory of the seventeenth century. It 
was enough that God would see that the nnscrnpulous 
power of the Roman hierarchy should never be able to re- 
verse the decisions of her virtuous son, and assert her claims 
to the right of proscription and persecntion against the true 
religion of Christ, destined to prevail mightily in this origi- 
nal Catholic province. 

It looks like a mere accidental exception in the life of a 
capricions monarch, it may have been favoritism in return 
for the boldness with which Rome acknowledsced the rischt 
of James to the crown of England, it certainly was a high 
Providence, that this colony received concessions of freedom, 
wholly exceptional in the historj^ of American colonization. 
" The charter, which in April, 1623, had passed the great 
seal for ' Avalon,' secured to the emigrants themselves an 
independent share in the legislation of the province, of 
which the statutes were to be established with the advice 
and approbation of the majority of the freemen or their 
deputies. Representative government was indissolubly con- 
nected with the fundamental charter ; and it was especially 
provided that the authority of the absolute proprietary 
should not extend to the life, freehold, or estate of any emi- 
grant. So far was the English monarch from reserving any 
right of superintendence in the colony, that he left himself 
without the power to take cognizance of what transpired ; 
and, by an express stipulation, covenanted that neither he, 
nor his heirs, nor his successors, should ever, at any time 
thereafter, set any imposition, custom, or tax whatsoever 
upon the inhabitants of the province." * Thus, through the 
high statesmanship of Sir George Calvert, under Providence, 
the right of the crown to tax this province was renounced 
forever. It is God's method, in the midst of imperfections 
and deformity, to provide himself with types of his exalted 
designs. Thus did he cause a man of narrow mind and 

* Bancroft, i. 242, 243. 



62 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

despotic pretensions, and a in;in of extraordinary breadth of 
view, subject to the power of restricting bigotry, to unite in 
foiuiding a model State, — a type of the glorious civil liberty 
which in the next century was to become national on this 
coutinent. 

On Friday, the 22d of November, 1634, Leonard Calvert 
(brother of Lord Baltimore) and about two hundred people, 
most of them Roman-Catiiolic gentlemen and their servants, 
set sail for the northern bank of the Potomac ; and, on the 
twenty-seventh day of March following, they fixed the loca- 
tion of their pioneeer town on the banks of the St. Mary's, 
" four leagues from its junction wdth the Potomac." Thus 
"religious liberty," says Bancroft, " obtained a home, its onl}^ 
home in the wide world, at the humble village which bore 
the name of St. Mary's." Read the immortal words in which 
the birthright of Americans received its first expression: 
" Whereas the enforcins: of the conscience in matters of 
religion hath frequently fallen out to be of dangerous con- 
sequence in those commonwealths where it has been prac- 
tised, and for the more quiet and peaceable government of 
this province, and the better to preserve mutual love and 
amity among the inhabitants, no person within this prov- 
ince, professing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall be anyways 
troubled, molested, or discountenanced for his or her re- 
ligion, or in the free exercise thereof." 

True, there was an apparent limitation in the phrase " pro- 
fessing to believe in Jesus Christ," and in the proviso that 
" whatsoever person shall blaspheme God, or shall deny or 
reproach the Holy Trinity, or any of the three persons 
thereof, shall be punished with death ; " yet it cannot be 
denied that the great principle of religious liberty had be- 
come a vital and practical power in this State. 

After all the disorders of the protectorate, and notwith- 
standing revolutions and counter revolutions, in which, for 
the time being, liberty was sometimes veiled, " Maryland, 
like Virginia, at the epoch of the Restoration was in full 



THE SOUTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. (53 

possession of liberty, based upon the practical assertion of 
the sovereignty of the people." * 

How sadly must we record the fact, in exact contrast with 
all this, that slavery at length forced itself into this province, 
and assumed to dictate and control it ! This vile institution 
was not wanted in Mar^dand. If in her unpretending days 
it was freely tolerated, or even welcomed, when the negroes 
began to be numerous, and the price of their staples was, in 
consequence, alarmingly reduced, and debts for slaves were 
largely increased, Maryland, as well as Virginia and the 
CaroHnas, greatly desired and preferred white laborers. But 
the English had become a nation of slave-dealers. Up to 
1700, in twenty years, they " took from Africa about three 
hundred thousand negroes, or about fifteen thousand a year." 
The dealers must have a market; and the nefarious slave- 
trade, which civilization has pronounced " piracy upon the 
high seas," and which has just expired from the repeated 
death-strokes of freedom, must fix its fetters on this noble 
jmd rising State. Thus Maryland becomes a part of the 
slaveholding group of the South, and bears her crushing 
burden, in consequence, for some two hundred years. 

This was not her true position. She was much more nat- 
urally allied to the Middle and Eastern States. Her climate 
o-ave the white laborer the advantag;e, and hence she had 
more " white servants " than any other colony. She was the 
most southern of the colonies which joined with the East 
for the defence of New York, paid her quota, and helped 
to form "an imperfect confederacy" extending "from the 
Chesapeake to Maine." 

DELAWARE. 

In the spring of 1631, the Dutch " planted a colony of 
more than thirty souls," "just within Cape Henlopen, on 
Lewes Creek ; " and thus by occupancy secured to the future 

* Bancroft, i. 265. 



64 THE GREAT REPTJBLIC. 

State of Delaware the right to exist as an independent com- 
monwealth. They built a fort, attached the arms of Hol- 
land to a pillar, and named the country Swaanendael. Godyn, 
Van Rensselaer, and their associates, in company with Pieter 
Heyes (the commander of the emigrant-ship), Ilosset, and De 
Vries, did what they could to make this a Dutch province ; 
but the colonists were murdered by Indians to avenge the 
death of their chief, slain by authority of Hosset, the com- 
mander. Wouter van Twiller, w^ho superseded Minuet, could 
not achieve success. The English swarmed everywhere, and 
claimed this land as a part of the whole. Dutchmen could 
live here, and on the Connecticut, and on the Hudson, where 
the right of discovery and settlement was undoubtedly with 
them ; but they could erect no States for Holland. The Eng- 
lish, in-ged forward by religious zeal, resolved to occupy the 
ground, and devote it to the rights of the people. And there 
was soon another competitor. 

Gustavus Adolphus, the great king of Sweden, claimed a 
right for his subjects in the soil and traffic of America. He 
would attempt colonization upon a vast scale. A grand com- 
mercial company was to be formed, and all Europe invited 
to take stock ; but he would not trouble the company to 
govern the colony. " Politics," he said, " lie beyond the pro- 
fession of merchants." 

One thing in the view^s of this enlightened sovereign and 
his company is worthy of note. "Slaves," they said, "cost 
a great deal, labor with reluctance, and soon perish from 
hard usage. The Swedish nation is laborious and intelli- 
gent ; and surely we shall gain more by a free people with 
wives and cliildren." " To the Scandinavian imagination, 
hope painted the New World as a paradise;" the proposed 
colony as a benefit to the persecuted, a security " to the hon- 
or of the wives and daughters " of those whom bigotry had 
made fugitives ; a blessing to the " common man," to the 
" whole Protestant world." It may prove the advantage, 
said Gustavus, of " all oppressed Christendom." 



THE SOUTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. 65 

But the great question of the rights of conscience must 
be fought out on the plains of Germany ; and Gustavus Adol- 
phus led his brave troops to the conflict. Liberty of thought 
and religion triumphed at Lutzen : but the funds raised for 
the colony were ingulfed in the war, and the great hero 
of liberty passed away, bequeathing to Germany and his 
own loyal but bereaved subjects the grand colonial enter- 
prise as '• the jewel of his kingdom." Oxenstiern, " the wise 
statesman, one of the great men of all time, the serene 
chancellor," who felt himself to be the executive of the will 
of Gustavus xldolphus, " renewed the patent, and extended 
its benefits to Germany ; " saying, " The consequences will be 
lavorable to all Christendom, to Europe, to the whole world." 

It seemed a singular providence that the " Key of Calmar 
and the Griffin," bearing the emigrants who vrere to repre- 
sent the deceased Swedish monarch and the great Oxen- 
stiern, should be directed to the Bay of Delaware ; and that 
the emigrants should plant their little colon}', which was to 
aid in founding an American State, within the disputed ter- 
ritory of the Dutch, the Quakers, and the Puritans. The 
Dutch would remonstrate, but did not then dare to def\- 
the immense power of Sweden ; the Quakers would finally 
sell out, and the Yankees cluster elsewhere ; the Swedes 
would sta}' for a few years, and finall}' be overwhelmed hy 
the Dutch ; the Dutch, in their turn, would be compelled to 
submit to the English ; and finally the representatives of 
European nations would cease to be Swedes or Englishmen or 
Dutch or Germans, but would become Americans, and the dis- 
tinguished Lord Delaware would give his name to the State. 

It is important to our inquiry to identify the sources of 
light, which, according to the plans of God, were to converge 
upon the land of the future Great Republic, I have, there- 
fore, given position and consideration to the Scandinavian 
movement, which, under the guidance of great minds, colo- 
nized " New Sweden." True, this laudable effort terminated 
disastrously, after a struggle of seventeen years; but the 



GG THE GREAT HEPUBLIC. 

Swedes broiio;lit with them from the Protestant Eeformation 
of Germany the grand ideas of Hberty and the dignity of 
labor. They rejected slavery, not, to be sure, from principles 
of justice and humanity, but upon economical grounds ; and 
histor}^ vindicates their opinions. The Dutch, who finally 
triumphed over them, were not so clear in their doctrines of 
political economy, and were unscrupulous with regard to the 
rights of the African race. Thc}^, with the English, deeply 
involved in the crime of kidnapping and selling " Guinea ne- 
groes," sent the curse of slavery into New Netherlands, and 
at length fastened it upon the State of Delaware. Here, 
therefore, as well as in Virginia, the wrong of oppression cor- 
rupted the morality and retarded the civilization of the peo- 
ple ; and Delaware most unnaturally took her place in the 
Southern group. 

NORTH CAROLINA. 

Raleigh failed to establish a colony in North Carolina ; 
but his attempts were valuable in the history of discovery, 
and form an important link in the chain which connects the 
American Republic with the best minds and best impulses 
of the Old World. His daring as an adventurer, his heroism 
as a military commander, his shrewdness as a manager of 
both civilized and savage men, entitle him to a high rank 
anion": the orgeat men of his times. James owed him a 
debt of gratitude that he repaid by acts of tyranny which 
will add infamy to his name as long as it is remembered. 
Raleigh's real crime was, failing to discover gold-mines in 
Guiana. He was out of favor; and, "against law and against 
equity," he must be shut up for long years like a felon : but 
his elegant mind would devote these years to ennobling 
literature. His ungrateful sovereign could, in his old age, 
order him to execution ; but Emi-land and America would 
embalm his memory as a great statesman and a splendid 
philanthropist. Men perish ; but ideas and impulses live. 
Raleigh left for his countrymen large information concern- 



THE SOUTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. 67 

ing the New World, and the enthusiasm of enterprise, which 
would ultimately make that world available to the civiliza- 
tion of succeeding ages, and the glory of the nation to the 
narrow-minded bigotry of whose sovereign he fell a sacrifice. 
It is especially as a man of liberal opinions, imbued with a 
high sense of justice, that his relation to North Carolina and 
the United States is held most sacred. The spirit which 
moved him to resist the cruel orders against the nonconform- 
ists, and every form of persecution for opinion's sake, was 
essentia,lly new English, and thoroughly American ; and the 
influences which such men awake never cease to benefit 
the race. The North-Carolinians perpetuate his memory by 
the name of their capital ; and the nation, in the noble insti- 
tutions which are true to his most thoroii2:h convictions. 

o 

But the time for a permanent colony, and the people to 
found a State, would come. In 1663, Clarendon, Monk (Duke 
of Albemarle), Lord Cramm, Lord Ashley Cooper, the Earl of 
Shaftesbury, Sir John Colleton, Lord John Berkeley, Sir Wil- 
liam Berkeley, and Sir George Carteret, " were constituted 
the proprietors and immediate sovereigns" of "the Province 
of Carolina." They were old men, and very avaricious. 
They were high-born royalists,* and, so far as possible, 
would stamp the future States with the impress of aristoc- 
racy. They would drain the country of its resources, under 
pretence of "a pious zeal for the propagation of the gospel." 

Thev were to contend with numerous rivals for the rio-ht 
of domain. Spain made Florida to extend over this whole 
coast. The everlastingr Puritans were hunting; about there 
for more room, more traffic, and more liberty ; and claimed 
for themselves all " the region round about." The noncon- 
formists of Virginia, shrinking from the exactions of a State 
church, had fled to the forests, and, in 1663, probably formed 
the first permanent settlement on Albemarle Sound, under 
patronage of Sir William Berkeley, at the same time Gov- 
ernor of Virginia and one of the proprietors of Carolina. 

* Bancroft, ii. 129, et seq. 



68 THE GREAT KEPUBLIC. 

He was, however, more loyal to himself and to freedom than 
to Virginia ; " and, scorning the settlement from the Ancient 
Dominion, established a separate government over men who 
had fled into the woods for the enjoyment of independence, 
and who had already, at least in part, obtained a grant of 
tlieir lands from the aboriginal lords of the soil." William 
Drumniond, a Scotch Presbyterian, became the Governor of 
North Carolina ; and the people thought themselves happy 
in beinsc allowed to manas^e their own affairs. Their con- 
sciences were free, and " the child of ecclesiastical oppression 
was swathed in independence." * 

Planters from Barbadoes, seeking a place for the exercise 
of their own discretion, had found their way to the Cape- 
Fear River; and, in 1666, their colony in " Clarendon" num- 
bered eight hundred. But Sir John Yeamans, their gov- 
ernor, was " the son of a Cavalier, a needy baronet, who, to 
mend his fortune, had become a Barbadoes planter. He 
would impart no element of freedom to the prospective 
State, and " Clarendon " must be allowed to disappear. 

But the ideas of the aristocratic English Company en- 
larged. They asked and received a new charter, which 
gave them room for an empire. Their jurisdiction now ex- 
tended from the Atlantic to the Pacific, over the territory 
of North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, 
Mississippi, Louisiana, and large portions of Arkansas, Florida, 
Missouri, Texas, and Mexico. The allegiance of the people 
to the English monarch was to be only nominal. The soil 
and the actual sovereignty belonged to the company ; but 
the freemen must consent to the laws. Relio;ion was to be 
free; but an aristocratic nobility was to give character to 
the civil institutions of this vast territory. 

Liberty in Carolina was to suffer further trials. The Earl 
of Shaftesbury would become the guiding genius of the new 
government; and he would call to his aid the great sensa- 
tional philosopher, John Locke, who believed in the power of 

* Bancroft, ii. 135. 



THE SOUTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. Q^ 

his own reason to create political institutions from the ideal 
forms of perfection floating in his own mind, without regard 
to the actual condition and private necessities of a people so 
simple, and near to nature, as the North-Carolinians. Shaftes- 
bury and Locke were firmly opposed to arbitrary power, but 
full of self contradictions. They desired liberty, but sought it 
in control by the nobility. They could not sympathize with 
the simple feelings of the masses; proposed to give them 
the avails of freedom by governing them ; and utterly dis- 
carded democracy. Here, in Carolina, representation was to 
exist in name ; but real political power was to be connected 
with hereditary wealth. Two orders of nobility, earls and 
barons, were provided for : one fifth of the land would be- 
long forever to the proprietaries, another fifth to the nobili- 
ty, reserving three-fifths only " for the people." The culti- 
vators of the soil were to be perpetually degraded. " All 
the children of the leet-men shall be leet-men, and so to 
all generations;" and "negro slaves" were to be in the 
absolute power of their masters. Of " the Grand Council," 
fifty in number, only " fourteen represented the Commons ; " 
and their "term of office was for life." And, finally, "popular 
enfranchisement was made an impossibility." In entire oppo- 
sition to the first conceptions of freedom with which these 
experimenters began, and against the wishes of Locke in 
1669, executive and judicial power w^ere placed beyond the 
reach of the people. In a second draught of the constitu- 
tion, the Church of England was established by law over a 
population chiefly of nonconformists, who had fled to this 
wilderness to obtain religious liberty. 

This strange mixture of genius and folly, destined to be 
alternately lauded to the skies and ridiculed as the product 
of fevered brains, could become sovereign on paper, and in 
royal decrees ; but it could never find its subjects. The rude 
inhabitants of North Carolina had no use for this consum- 
mate nonsense, and would not allow it to supersede their own 
unpretending government, which sought simply the personal 



70 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

convenience and social rights of a self-developing population. 
Lon"" after the vasjraries of Locke and Shaftesbury were con- 
signed to oblivion, for more than fifty years, these primitive 
regulations, '• confirmed by the population and re-enacted in 
1715," continued to be the law of North Carolina. 

Shaftesbury was an infidel ; and doubtless, yielding to the 
idea of a State religion as a political necessity, and, for the 
time being, an indispensable part of an aristocratic govern- 
ment, he relied upon the future development of the mate- 
rialism concealed in the sensational philosophy of Locke, and 
the philosophical scepticism of the age, to refieve his grand 
colony from what he deemed the superstitions of religion. 
But his infidelity, with his theories of government, must give 
place to the heart's devotion to God, and the truths of di- 
vine revelation. Even the quaint and humble teachings of 
William Edmonson the Quaker would be joyfully Avelcomed 
to supply the long-felt spiritual wants of the people ; and the 
land of the dreamy splendors of aristocrjitic despotism and 
philosophic infidelity would become a quiet and grateful re- 
treat to the eccentric but truly devout George Fox, whose 
honest searchings of heart had reduced him and his followers 
to the sternest simplicit}- and the most sublime self-denial. 
With characteristic humility, he could say he found the 
people " generally tender and open," and he had made '' a 
little entrance for truth." More pretentious men would 
have said the people of North Carolina are turning Quakers; 
while the candid historian must say the religion of the heart, 
represented in the verj^ plainest style, showed itself superior, 
in adaptation to the wants of men, to either the formalism 
of a State religion or the cool cruelty of infidelity. 

While, therefore, we now see distinctly the hand of God 
in overruling the schemes of men in the forming period of 
this State, we see also the same divine plan which we have 
found elsewhere. The right and the wrong, the true and 
the false, must come together, reveal their contrasts, and pass 
through their struggles upon the same arena. Liberty was 



THE SOUTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. 71 

to be the grand law of Carolina ; but it must show its right 
to power and duration by meeting and putting down the 
tyranny from which it had in vain atteuipted to flee. Pure 
religion must have a home in the hearts of the people ; but 
it must contend with the wit and sarcasm of Shaftesbury and 
the blind materialism of Locke. The State would be slave, 
and group itself with Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware ; 
but the period of emancipation, though long delayed, would 
finally come. The institutions introduced by the power of 
wealth and ambition, and sustained by the most persistent 
energy, would finally give place to those of primitive sim- 
plicity and divinely-inspired truth, though the spirit of re- 
jected assumptions of authority and caste would descend 
through a thousand invisible channels to vex and distress the 
poor, and betray the proud folly of its deluded votaries. 

SOUTH CAROLINA. 

The boundaries of States within the territory of the fu- 
ture Republic could not be determined in Europe. Grasping 
proprietaries and dreaming speculators could fix them on 
paper, and sovereigns define them in charters and edicts, 
conceding kingdoms and empires to a few men or an individ- 
ual ; but God, the great proprietor of the continent, adjusted 
the settlements and the distinct jurisdictions to his own plans. 
There was room for another State in Carolina on the sea- 
board. Turbot said it was the " beauty and envy of North 
America," destined rather, as we painfully know, to become 
" the plague-spot " on the face of the nation. 

The proprietaries founded a settlement of turbulent men 
in the vicinity of Beaufort, in January, 1670. They were 
under the superintendence of Joseph West, and were to be 
governed in the name of the company by William Sayle, 
most likely a Presbyterian. This first location was soon 
abandoned. 

The grand model of a perfect government had just been 



72 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

completed by Locke and Shaftesbury; and South Carolina was 
to be the scene of its complete demonstration. At least the 
idea of caste, of government by hereditary wealth, of a long 
lino of illustrious families, a splendid nobility, and the deg- 
radation of labor, must introduce itself early, must set up 
its pretensions at the very foimdation of South Carolina; for 
it was to make its most desperate struggle here against true 
republican equality. For near two hundred years, it would 
contend against the most sacred rights of man ; but it would 
be promptly met by stubborn democratic antagonisms with 
a vigor which promised and finally obtained a triumph. 

The people were furnished at once with a cop}^ of the 
splendid Utopian scheme which was to make them nobles 
and lords, and secure them indemnity from toil ; but the ma- 
jority could see no use for it. They were not ready. The 
demands for shelter and bread were too urgent then for the 
enjoyuient of paper rank and artificial dignities. Repre- 
sentative government would commence at the same time 
that the claims of aristocratic government were set up. 
They were to battle for centuries, and must face each other 
prouiptly. Then there was the "landgrave," consisting of 
John Locke, Sir John Yeamans, and James Carteret ; and 
there were the representatives of the people. The High 
Church with its partisans would, of course, be with the 
former; but, for the present, the latter would show the great- 
est strength, and govern in their own simple way. But " the 
aristocracy" would gain one great point. Slavery should be 
recognized and established from the very beginning, hi the 
other States of the Southern group, this vile institution was 
thrust upon the people after they began to develop the re- 
sources of the soil, and their own energies, in the natural 
way; but South Carolina was slave from its very foundation 
upward. This would at least provide that the planters slioidd 
be saved from the servilitj' of labor, and make them " gen- 
tlemen." It might lay the foundation for an hereditjuy aris- 
tocracy, and, at some future day, realize the splendid ideas 



THE SOUTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. 73 

of the founders of the colony. The climate favored the 
plan of labor by Africans rather than Europeans ; but it 
suggested nothing with regard to the destruction of their 
original rights, and their reduction to the position of chattels. 

About 1672, a few people settled on Oyster Point, which 
gradually rose to the rank of a town, and was named for 
Charles, the reigning monarch. A century later, it became 
the growing commercial city of Charleston, a place of high- 
est distinction in the trade and history of the South. 

Now South Carolina becomes an attractive country to the 
adventurers of New England and of New York ; and they 
come to its magnificent groves, its land of flowers and sunny 
skies, to seek an easier home. But especially the " impov- 
erished Cavalier" and the High-Churchman see in this risinij: 
colony strong inducements to emigrate, to attempt to iui- 
prove their fortunes, and build up an aristocratic government 
and a State religion. But with them came, as Providence 
willed, the inteUigent industrious dissenters, fleeing from 
discomfort and proscription at home to the wilds of Ameri- 
ca, where they hoped to enjoy the sacred rights of con- 
science, and freedom of worship. This steady advance of 
parallel columns in the rising armies of Oppression and Lib- 
erty cannot be an accident. It has been too long continued, 
and implies the potent adjustment of too many contingencies, 
to admit of the thought for a moment. It is here precisely 
that we see tlie hand of God in the special preparations for 
the future triumphs of the right. 

Let us now turn to another grand movement in the devel- 
opments of Providence. We have seen how disastrously the 
attempts of French Protestants, inider the great Coligny, 
failed in Carolina. In a preceding chapter, we mourned over 
the bloody destruction sent to their settlement by Spanish 
cruelty under the domination of Rome. They were then 
laboring for the aggrandizement of France, from whose per- 
secuting tyranny they fled ; and they could not succeed : but, 



74 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

as we saw, the Huguenots would eventually find a home in 
the bosom of American freedom. 

" John Calvin, by birth a Frenchman, was to France the 
Apostle of the Reformation." God gave him and his fellow- 
laborers great success in winning souls in that populous and 
powerful kingdom. The struggle which arose with the Ro- 
mish Church was protracted and fearful. Bloody supersti- 
tion exacted its hecatombs of victims. The wily Madame 
de Maintenon controlled the weak and bigoted Louis XIV. 
The tolerating Edict of Nantes was revoked, and Justice bled 
in her vales and in her high places. The humble peasant 
and the noble prince fell together in witness of the truth, 
that Jesus Christ had power on earth to forgive sins, without 
the presence of ghostly confessor or intervening priest. 
God was glorified in the humble boldness and triumphant 
suffering of the martj'rs of France. 

A signal providence now appears, as in the days of the 
apostles, in the dispersion of the saints. The north of Ger- 
manj', London, New England, New York, and other parts, 
received accessions of skill and industry in the useful and 
elegant arts from the bloody fields of France, at the same 
time that the paradise above received the souls, and the 
catacombs of Paris the bodies, of unnumbered thousands " for 
the testimony of Jesus." 

'"But the warmer climate" of South Carolina "became 
the chief resort of the Huguenots." Finally, from their 
baptisms of blood, came " the fugitives from Languedoc on 
the Mediterranean, from Rochelle and Saintange and Bor- 
deaux, the provinces on the Bay of Biscay, from St. Quentin, 
Poictiers, and the beautiful Valley of Tours, from St. Lo and 
Dieppe. Men who had the virtues of the English Puritans, 
without their bigotry, came to the land to which the toler- 
ant benevolence of Shaftesbury had invited the believer of 
every creed." * 

* Bantroft, ii. 180, 181. 



THE SOUTHERX GEOUP COMPLETED. 



7o 



In Ch'arleston and vicinity, these noble people found their 
home ; and how grateful must have been the return of the 
holy sabbath, when parents and children moved over the 
waters, or through their groves of palmetto perfumed with 
the odors of liberty and love, to their quiet church in Charles- 
ton, where, with songs of gratitude and humble prayers, they 
remembered their sorrows and their deliverance, and listened 
to the simple and exalting truths of the gospel, with " none to 
molest or make them afraid " ! We must needs emero-e from 
the sea of martyrdom to understand their joy. Well said 
Judith, the wife of Pierre Manigault, " God hath done great 
things for us in enabling us to bear up under so many tri- 
als ; " and well might the paeans of victory rise from the 
church of the Huguenots in Charleston. 

Let us, however, note that this was God's gracious plan by 
which South Carolina should receive some of her best blood 
and noblest citizens from sunny France, and a strong infusion 
of liberty from the firm and sturdy Protestantism of the 
French Calvinists. Other portions of the United States 
shared in the benedictions, which, under God, arose from the 
horrors of Eomish persecution. 

We can now still better understand how it was that " the 
company of courtiers " could not succeed well in establish- 
ing their splendid forms of aristocratic government ; and why 
their weakness must constantly appear, and gradually yield 
before the gathering power of the people, whose ideas of 
the rights and dignity of self-government rose with every 
new emergency : for God had sent enough of the nonconfor- 
mists of A'irginia, the dissenters of England, and the Hu- 
guenots of France, into South Carolina, to make the battle 
for liberty heroic, and finally successful. 

In process of time, however, the centre of the Southern 
group would remove from Virginia to South Carolina, where 
slavery was fundamental, and revealed its utmost malig- 
nity. 



76 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

GEORGIA. 

Spanish pride was slow to surrender the rights of discov- 
ery claimed on the Atlantic coast. The treaty which Eng- 
land had extorted was held to be of no binding force, and 
the resumption of jurisdiction over Carolina was only a 
question of time. But these pretensions were becoming 
every year more impracticable. So far from yielding to 
them, England determined to crowd down still nearer to St. 
Augustine. In 1717, it was seriously proposed "to plant a 
new colony south of Carolina, in a region that was heralded 
as the most delightful country of the universe." The time 
was at hand, but under providential auspices entirely differ- 
ent from the spirit of avarice which controlled the British 
courtiers. 

From the dark and loathsome prisons, where, simply for 
the crime of poverty, thousands of British subjects sighed 
and pined away their precious lives, a wail of distress came 
up, which fell upon the ears of the noble philanthropist, 
James Oglethorpe ; and his whole soul promptly respond- 
ed to the voice of agony. He went into those cells; he 
listened to the tales of woe; he gazed upon the haggard 
forms of wealth's suffering victims ; he took up and echoed 
their wail, until all England shuddered at the cry for justice 
which smote the ears of lords and commons, of king and 
subjects ; and multitudes came out of their cells to breathe 
again the pure air of heaven. 

Oglethorpe interpreted Providence correctly. There must 
be an advance step in the humanizing power of government. 
These poor sufferers must get away from an administration 
of law, which in theory, and very largely in English practice, 
made the protection of property the grand aim of govern- 
ment, and would, therefore, imprison a man for a trifling 
debt, or hang him for petty theft. Even the savage wilds 
of America might be a grateful i-etreat from such merciless 
barbarity'. Oglethorpe would found a colony; and George II. 



THE SOUTHERN GEOTJP COMPLETED. 77 

would grant a charter for the use of the famous country 
" between the Savannah and the Altamaha, stretching from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific," wholly and solely " in trust for 
the poor." "JVon sihi, sed cdlis,'' was the noble motto 
upon the corporate seal. Not for themselves, but for others, 
did Oglethorpe and his friends undertake this grand enter- 
prise. 

This great man could not be induced to intrust to others 
the execution of a plan so difficult, requiring so much sacri- 
fice, and having such high claims to the patronage of God. 
In November, 1732, with "about a hundred and twenty 
emigrants," he embarked for the scene of his future toil. 
After a voyage of fifty-seven days, he reached Charleston ; 
exchanged civilities with the South-Carolinians ; and in Jan- 
uary, 1733, located the principal town where Savannah now 
stands. The emigrants soon arrived at their lonsc-souo-ht 
home ; houses combining comfort with economy were con- 
structed for the residence of governor and people alike ; 
and the great prison-philanthropist had become the founder 
of a State which was to be "the place of refuge for the dis- 
tressed people of Britain and the persecuted Protestants of 
Europe." 

The preparatory period of Georgian history is of high 
moral significance, and of grave importance in this discus- 
sion. The philanthropy of Oglethorpe was no transient 
sentiment. It arose from a high sense of man's responsi- 
bility to God. It was, therefore, living, vigorous, and prac- 
tical. It was deeply imbued with religious principle and 
motives, and therefore was consistent in its treatment of 
men under all circumstances. 

No promptings of avarice or ambition dictated cruelty 
to the native race. Tomo-chichi, chief of the Yamacraws, 
made to the governor a present of " a bufiido-skin painted 
on the inside with the head and feathers of an ea<2;le," and 
beautifully said, " The feathers of the eagle are soft, and 
signify love ; the buffalo-skin is warm, and is the emblem 



78 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

of protection ; therefore love and protect our little fami- 
lies," — no vain appeal to a heart so noble as that of Ogle- 
thorpe. Ills flime spread among the natives of the forest. 
Thev came from far off and near at his call to hear words 
of peace, and accept his powerful protection. " We are 
come," said the chief of Coweta, " twenty-five days' journey 
to see 3^ou. I was never willing to go down to Charleston, 
lest I should die on the way; but wdien I heard 3'"0u w^ere 
come, and that you are good men, I came down that I might 
hear good things." — "Call back," said Oglethorpe, "your 
kindred who loved you ; recall the Yamassees, that they 
may be buried in peace among their ancestors, and may see 
their graves before they die." How beautiful the prompt- 
ings of true Christianity! No wonder the Creeks and Chero- 
kees, and distant nations, numerous and powerful, sought and 
received his kindly intervention to settle their tribal feuds, 
and protect them from the cruel aggressions of the white 
man. " The good faith of Oglethorpe in the offers of peace, 
his noble mien, and sweetness of temper, conciliated the con- 
fidence of the red men; and he in his turn was pleased with 
their simplicity, and sought for means to clear the glimmer- 
ing ray of their minds, to guide their bewildered reason, 
and teach them to know the God whom they ignorantly 
adored." * 

Well may the "persecuted Protestants" come hither from 
Salzburg with their " Bibles, hymn-books, catechisms, and 
books of devotion," beginning their " pilgrimage cheerfully 
in the name of God;" "after a discourse and prayer and 
benediction," conversing as they go, on the banks of the 
Rhine, amid "hymns and prayers, of justificalioii and of 
sanctification, and of standing fast in the Lord." How di- 
vinely upborne were they amid the perils of a terrific storm 
at sea as they raised their voices in prayer and song amidst 
the tempest, "and feared no evil"! How delightful to see 
these " wayfaring men " met at Charleston by the paternal 

* Bancroft, ii. 42.3, et seq. 



THE SOUTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. 79 

Oglethorpe, and conducted to the site of their own town ! 
They named it " Ebenezer : " and here they would sojourn 
only for a time; for their "home was beyond the skies." 

"The grand success of Oglethorpe made the colony in- 
crease rapidly by volunteer emigrants. ^His imdertakin"- 
will succeed/ said Johnson, the Governor of South Carolina ; 
'for he nobly devotes all his powers to serve the poor, and 
rescue them from their wretchedness.' ' He bears a srreat 
love to the servants and children of God,' Avrote the pastor 
of Ebenezer. He has taken care of us to the utmost of 
his ability. God has so blessed his presence and his regu- 
lations in the land, that others would not accomplish in many 
years what he has brought about in one." * 

" Taking with him Tomo-chichi and others of the Creeks," 
he returned to England in the interests of his colony. Feb. 6, 
1736, he came back with three hundred emigrants, among 
whom was the afterwards distinguished John Wesley, o-low- 
ing with missionary zeal, but as yet without evidence of the 
new life within. Charles Wesley, thereafter to be one of the 
greatest of lyric poets, was the governor's secretary. The 
pious Moravians were here, and mark the presence of Chris- 
tian faith in this new accession to the population of Georgia. 
They landed, and ascended a rising ground not far from 
Tybee Island, ''where," said Wesley, "they all knelt, and re- 
turned thanks to God for having safely arrived in Georgia." 

We have proceeded far enough to find in this province 
the ample and active presence of divine power, which we 
have identified thus far everywhere in the formation of 
these States; and we should confidently expect to find this 
agency developing and organizing here the elements of a 
free government. 

The laws were few, and exceedingly simple. The trustees 
governed the colony in the absence of the governor. But 
the civil rights of the people depended chiefly upon the 
humane influence of Oglethorpe and his high sense of jus- 

* Bancroft, iii. 425. 



80 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

tice. When he was absent, the people mourned, and thought 
the laws of the trustees too stringent. Under control of the 
highest motives, and hoping to prevent a monopoly of lands, 
they had unwisely ordained that the right of soil should 
descend only to males. Far in advance of their times, they 
enacted a stringent prohibitory liquor-law, which, high as it 
was in its just morality, could not be enforced. They also 
took a firm stand against slaver}^, which secures them an 
elevated place in history, and speaks decisively for the effec- 
tive power of Christianity in the judgments and life of Ogle- 
thorpe. " No settlement was ever before established on so 
humane a plan." In London, in 1734, it could be truthfully 
said in praise of Georgia, " Slavery, the misfortune, if not 
the dishonor, of other plantations, is absolutely proscribed. 
Let avarice defend it as it will, there is an honest reluctance 
in humanity against buying and selling, and regarding those 
of our own species as our wealth and possessions." " The 
name of slavery is here unheard, and every inhabitant is 
free from unchosen masters and oppression." '•• Slavery," 
said Oglethorpe, " is against the gospel as well as the funda- 
mental hiw of England. We refused, as trustees, to make 
a law permitting such a horrid crime." Brave words of a 
noble man ! Happy had it been for the great State of 
Georgia if they had been heeded. But we must take mourn- 
ful note of the fact that the influence of those who were 
termed '• the better sort of people in Savannah " finally pre- 
vailed ; and against her own principles, against the high- 
souled will of her noble founder, against the gospel as well 
as the fundamental law of England, this " horrid crime " was 
committed ; and, in other years, Georgia would, so far as pos- 
sible, expiate her crime by the blood of her best citizens. 

REVIEW. 

Thus have we passed over the original colonies of the 
Southern group. Later, Florida and the Gulf States would 



THE SOUTHERN GROUP COISIPLETED. 31 

be added to their number, and four in the Central West 
receive the bUghting curse ; and fifteen great States, other- 
wise free, become the slaveholding confederated South. 

The institution extended itself, by sufferance, speedily 
through several of the Middle and Eastern States, but 
yielded, not so much, we fear, to the force of principle as to 
the resistance of the climate, — too cold for the negro, and 
returning much higher profits from the labor of free white 
people. 

Here, again, our urgent question returns: If God in- 
tended this vast and splendid country for the occupancy of 
freedom, and for the development of a powerful homoge- 
neous people, why did he suffer the intrusion of this antago- 
nist institution ? Why must the grand natural development 
of liberty be obstructed, and in so many ways defeated, by 
an antagonism so direct, and armed by the fearful power of 
human selfishness ? 

There is, as we understand, but one answer to these 
interrogations. Man is free : and, in a state of trial, the 
power to do right must involve the power to do wrong; 
the appreciation and concession of personal rights upon 
the principles of common brotherhood and humanity 
must imply the power to withhold those rights upon prin- 
ciples of selfishness and oppression. The disposition to 
justice and benevolence must depend upon the extent to 
which the great social law of Jesus Christ, "All things 
whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye 
even so to them," has taken possession of the soul, and con- 
trolled its perverted self-love. The social wrongs of the 
world are in direct opposition to the divine law of morality 
expressed in another form, ^' Thou shalt love thy neighbor 
as thyself" The rights of man will be universally con- 
ceded and fully honored, when by the new creation, and the 
advancement of civilization, this law of love is universally 
obeyed. Because it is not, and perverted self-love rises 
above this great law of right, slavery is possible ; and, since 



.-c- 



82 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

God did not forcibly interfere with human liberty, the bit- 
ter wrongs of slavery fell upon our Southern States. 

But God does frequently, by special interference, inter- 
rupt and control the wrong tendencies of men. When such 
restraint becomes a higher necessity than the indulgence of 
abused freedom, then the abuse comes to an end, affording 
another illustration of the revealed fact, "He maketh the 
wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder he doth 
restrain." 

But there is in the toleration of slavery a still higher 
manifestation of the divine purpose. He proposes no me- 
chanical coerced freedom in this Great Republic, no feeble, 
ephemeral growth of liberty, such as might be the result 
of arbitrary protection and untried strength, but a sturdy, 
masterly power, such as can only be the result of discipline, 
of vigorous exercise and severe habit. What, then, could 
be a higher manifestation of Divine Wisdom than to allow 
this intense form of despotism to rise up in the very midst 
of free institutions ? If it must exist anywhere upon the 
globe, it would seem well to import it even, to gather its 
scattered elements from every part of the world, and con- 
dense them into their most dreaded and terrific forms, 
within the broad domain consecrated to freedom. Then let 
oppression do its worst. Let it spread like leprosy upon 
the body politic, and see whether or not it has power to 
destroy the life of the nation. Bring up to the contest the 
truest, purest form of social right known among men, and 
see whether it can grapple, first with the moral, and then 
with the physical force of tyranny. Let the dreaded con- 
flict have a wide field and an ample range of time ; endow 
the vile usurpation with all the power of wealth and social 
distinction, with political skill and the highest culture ; and 
let it demonstrate its most subtle and most daring force, 
that the world may see whether civil and social wrong has 
any limits, or whether it has power to subjugate, and stamp 
into the earth, the liberties of the race. 



THE SOUTHERN" GROUP COMPLETED. 33 

All this has been done before the eyes of men and angels 
and God, and we are permitted to behold the glorious tri- 
umph of the right. This day, liberty in the United States 
of America is more perfectly defined, and armed with a more 
potential life, than could ever have been possible if " the 
vilest slavery that ever saw the sun," "the sum of all vil- 
lanies," had not been here to assault and try its strength, 
and, by the severest discipline to which the right on earth 
was ever subjected, augment and develop its power, and 
energize its action. Such transcendent skill has character- 
ized the plans of God, that, by striking down oppression in 
America, he has destroyed its dominant force, for the whole 
race, and for all time to come. 



CHAPTER VII. 
A NEW ENGLAND EMERGES FROM THE OLD. 

" The two or three main ideas which constitute the basis of the social theory of the 
United States were first combined in the Northern British Colonies, the States of Nevr 
England. They now extend their influence over the whole American world." — Dk 

TOCQDEVILLE. 

We now turn to a different quarter of the heavens, and 
behold the mornmo; star of freedom rismi!:. Its soft and 

CD O 

pleasing light gives promise of a charming day. 

We have traced the plans and movements of Providence 
in the colonization of the South. We have seen the princi- 
ple of liberty, struggling with old aristocratic forms, gradu- 
ally gaining position, and working its way upward and out- 
ward with the growing population. We have been struck 
with its simplicity, vitality, and power. 

At the same time, the principle and passion of despotism 
have shown great strength. They have insisted with energy 
upon the divine right of kings, upon the hereditary claims 
of the governing class, and upon the right of sovereignty 
over the New World. Whatever they have yielded to the 
spirit of manly independence, rousing itself in Europe, and 
assuming greater boldness in America, they have yielded 
slowly, and with great reluctance. They continue through 
the whole period of preparation, varying with the narrow or 
broader views of the reigning sovereign, sustained by the 
usurpations of a State religion, and finally grasping and tena- 
ciously holding all the power of human slaverj'. We watch 
the struggle with alternate hope and fear. We almost in- 
voluntarily ask, Will the power of despotism extend over 
the western hemisphere, and last forever ? Ls there no homo 

84 




E Hill. H,— 



s^^i^>;¥iKi«syiisifEii MiiiL^iTittr!! 



A NEW ENGLAND EMERGES FROM THE OLD. 85 

for Liberty, where she may reveal her true hfe, unfold her 
power, and achieve for the world a new and nobler civiliza- 
tion ? In the midst of our anxious inquiries, we examine 
history in the light of true Christianity, and begin to re- 
ceive our answer. God is yet the sovereign of nations. In 
the mean time, he is preparing a new development of the 
feeling of personal rights and responsibility. Let us look 
at this new development from our Christian stand-point. 

PURITANISM IN ENGLAND. 

The contest between radicalism and conservatism appears 
in every age, and in Church as well as State. When the 
Reformation extended to England, the questions, as to how 
much that was peculiar to the Roman-Catholic Church 
should be saved, and what should take the place of that 
which was destroyed, were not easily nor soon answered. 
Henry VIII. could see distinctly that his own independent 
sovereignty, and his purposes of divorce and marriage, 
would not permit the supreme ecclesiastical power claimed 
by the Roman pontiff within his realm ; and he therefore 
summarily set it aside. But he b}^ no means intended gen- 
eral liberty of religious fliith and observances. It will not 
be forgotten, that, in his reign, men were burned at the stake 
for denying the Romish doctrine of transubstantiation ; and 
the superstitious ritualism of the Catholic Church was to 
constitute, to a great extent, the State religion of England. 
Elizabeth had been a thorough conformist durino; the reiirn 
of " bloody Mary," and was strongly inclined to continue it 
when she became the head of the kinordom and the Church. 
She believed in the real presence, and long struggled to re- 
tain images, the crucifix, and tapers in her private chapel. 
She was inclined to offer prayers to the Virgin, favored the 
invocation of saints, and insisted upon " the celibacy of the 
clergy." She was too fond of absolute authority, and had 
too high an appreciation of the absolutism of the Romish 
Church, to make her a willing radical Protestant. 



86 THE GREAT KEPUBLIC. 

But her problem was difficult. She was obliged and dis- 
posed to carry the movement commenced by Henry VIII. 
forward to its legitimate results. He had released the king- 
dom from the political domination of Kome : she must sever 
it from the spiritual domination. She must show that the 
Church of England, under the supreme control of the British 
sovereign, was as verily the true Catholic Church as when 
under the control of the Roman pontiff. She was Protest- 
ant as against the assumptions of the pope, rather than as 
against the superstitious rites and heretical dogmas of the 
Church of Home. She expected, therefore, and not wholly , 
without reason, to be able, by queenly grace and authority, 
to induce Catholic conformity to the rule of the new virtual 
pontiff, and substantially the old Catholic Church. 

Cranmer had done much to prepare the way for this re- 
sult. In many respects a very great and good man, he was 
yet a temporizer. With his conscience roused, and his heart 
essentially Protestant, he deprecated persecution, and de- 
voutly wished for the growth of true spiritual Christianity. 
But, as a distinguished leader of the English hierarchy, he 
founded the Church of England with high notions of priestly 
authority and political expediency. It is, therefore, not a 
reason for surprise that he ultimately forfeited the confidence 
of both parties, and fell a victim to his own inconsistencies. 

But Elizabeth must persist in her efforts at conformity to 
the divine right of prelacy and the State religion. Roman- 
ists, accustomed to the art of dissimulation, would to some 
extent seem to conform, but finally show that the supreme 
headship of the pontiff at Rome was essential to Romanism; 
and the Virgin Queen would feel the blow of excommunica- 
tion, while her subjects were absolved from their allegiance 
by a power that sovereigns had not ceased to dread. 

But Elizabeth must grapple with another formidable 
power. The Reformation was not a mere effort at political 
emancipation. " Luther had based his reform upon the sub- 
lime but simple truth which lies at the basis of morals, — 



A NEW ENGLAND EMERGES FROM THE OLD. 87 

the paramount value of character, and purity of conscience ; 
the superiority of right dispositions over ceremonial exac- 
tions ; " and against all papal and prelatical pretensions, im- 
plying the confessional, indulgences, and priestly absolution, 
had insisted upon "justification by faith alone." It was only 
necessary for these grand doctrines to gain a clearer utterance 
to insure their propagation and spiritual power. They were 
essentially true, and hence immortal, and destined to win their 
way to the ends of the earth. 

England had long since received the evangelical leaven. 
Wickliffe and his Bible, and a host of illustrious confessors 
and martyrs, had sent these great truths down deep into the 
religious consciousness of the nation ; and they were destined 
to survive all persecution, and work their way up to the sur- 
face, and all the more promptly and powerfully, now that 
papal authority was renounced by the head of the realm. 
Freedom of thought precedes freedom of expression, and 
leads directly to it. '•' The spirit of inquiry rebelled against 
proscription." Conformity to Romish superstitions and 
pompous ceremonies, as a matter of " expediency," was de- 
nounced as a crime; and it soon began to be evident that 
multitudes of the English people did not allow that they 
had escaped from one form of ecclesiastical despotism to be 
immediately involved in another. In other words, the spirit 
of true piety would assert its right to worship God accord- 
ing to the dictates of its own conscience. 

"The austere principle was now announced, that not even a 
ceremony should be tolerated, unless it was enjoined by the 
word of God. And this was Puritanism. The Church of 
England, at least in its ceremonial part, was established by 
an act of parliament or a royal ordinance. Puritanism, zeal- 
ous for independence, admitted no voucher but the Bible, — 
a fixed rule which it would allow neither parliament nor 
hierarchy nor king to interpret. The Puritans adhered to 
the Established Church as far as their interpretations of the 
Bible seemed to warrant, but no farther, not even in things 



88 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

of inclifTerence. They would yield nothing in religion to 
the temporal sovereign ; they would retain nothing that 
seemed a relic of the religion which they had renounced. 
They asserted the equality of the plebeian clergy, and direct- 
ed their fiercest attacks against the divine right of bishops, 
as the only remaining stronghold of superstition. In most 
of these views, they were sustained by the reformers of the 
continent." * 

Here was a revolt from authority that was no sudden 
impulse, no transient passion. It w^as Conscience rising up 
to jissert her rights ; it was deep-seated conviction ; it 
was true manhood, under the inspirations of a new life, — 
the life of the age, the life of the Reformation, — gradually 
becoming: " the life of God in the soul of man." 

What would temporal and spiritual sovereignty do with 
it ? Why, rise up and crush it. Its most nmnerous repre- 
sentatives were "plebeians," common people. What right 
had they to " prophesy " or to find fault with " the Church " ? 
How could they expect consideration or mercy ? It was of 
no use to parley with such obstinate heretics. Down with 
them ! No, your Majesty : you do not understand these 
people. Some of your wisest counsellors see the roots of 
this " evil " striking deeper down than you think. This is 
a new England coming up which you have not known be- 
fore : it is not merely Brown and " the conventicles ; " it is 
the spirit of the ago. Be careful how you treat it It will 
rock the throne of England, and conduct roj^alty itself to 
the block, if you don't take your foot off of it. 

But power enthroned is blind, and the terrible contest will 
go on. In 1571, the Thirty-nine Articles become the law of 
the land. Parliament exacts belief, at first, only in those 
which relate to the confession and the sacraments. But 
even this show of toleration will soon disappear. The order 
for absolute conformity is promulgated, and Protestant Po- 
pery shows its persecuting, murderous spirit. 

* Bancroft, i. 279. 



A NEW ENGLAND EMERGES FROM THE OLD. §9 

In 1583, Whitgift was in power, and there was no further 
pretence of toleration. The forbearing disposition of Puritan- 
ism was also wearing out. Those who wished only to reform 
the Church of England, not to raise a new sect, could no 
longer restrain the more ardent of their number ; and " sepa- 
ratists" began to talk and act defiantly. What if two men 
were hung for distributing Brown's " Tract on the Liberty 
of Prophesying"? "Independents" were fast rising above 
the fear of death. The spirits who dared dissent were be- 
coming very numerous : twenty thousand soon appeared 
at the conventicles; and nothing but utter extermination 
would put an end to this revolt from the usurpations of a 
State reUf2;ion. 

The weak, perfidious James would finally undertake to do 
this. At first, the Puritans were misled by his bland and 
flattering airs, his protestations of faith in the purity of their 
principles and lives ; and began to trust him : but it was a 
false confidence. He was too imbecile and licentious to be 
honest. " The conference at Hampton Court," granted to the 
nonconformists with a show of fairness, brought out his true 
character. Foiled in his reliance upon argument, he soon 
dispensed with it, and substituted despotic authority in its 
place. "I will have none of that liberty as to ceremonies," 
said he : " I will have one doctrine, one discipline, one religion 
in substance and in ceremony. Never speak more to that 
point how far you are bound to obey." " I will make them 
conform, or I will harry them out of the land ; or else, 
worse, only hang them : that's all." " If any would not be 
quiet, and show their obedience, they were worthy to be 
hansced." 

Archbishop Whitgift was " the power behind the throne," 
and he was pleased. He had said before the conference, " I 
have not been greatly quiet in mind, the vipers are so many;" 
but the king's idea of "hanghig" was wonderfully satisfac- 
tory. "Your Majesty speaks by the special assistance of 
God's Spirit," said he. Bishop Bancroft, on his knees, ex- 



I 
90 THE GREAT REPUBLIC, 

claimed that his heart melted for joy " because God had given 
England such a king, as, since Christ's time, has not been." 

But how grievously mistaken were these representatives 
of persecuting, blasphemous bigotry ! As though the thrust 
of a sword could kill a thought, or the axe of an executioner 
could slaughter a principle ! 

The struggles of " dissent " from ceremonial worship es- 
tablished by law had at length reached the result thus ad- 
mirably summed up by Mr. Hildreth : " As the other tra- 
ditions of the Church fell more and more into contempt, the 
entire reverence of the people was concentrated upon the 
Bible, recently made accessible in an English version, and 
read with eagerness, not as a mere form of words to be sol- 
emnly and ceremoniously gone through with, but as an in- 
spired revelation, as indisputable authority in science, politics, 
morals, and life. It began, indeed, to be judged necessary by 
the more ardent and sincere, that all existing institutions in 
Church and State, all social relations, and the habits of everj^- 
day life, should be reconstructed, and made to conform to 
this divine model. Those who entertained these sentiments 
increased to a considerable party, composed chiefly, indeed, 
of the humble classes, yeomen, traders, and mechanics, but 
including also clergymen, merchants, landed proprietors, and 
even some of the nobility. They were derided, by those not 
inclined to go with them, as Puritans [an honorable evi- 
dence of their elevated standard o^ purity in heart and life] : 
but the austerity of their lives and doctrines, and their con- 
fident claim to internal assurance of a second birth and 
special election as the children of God, made a powerfid im- 
pression on the multitude ; while the high schemes they en- 
tertained for the reconstruction of society brought them into 
sympathy with all that was great and heroic in the nation." '^ 

In 1604, parliament showed an astonishing increase of Pu- 
ritan strength. Tlie advocates of freedom in religion were 
a majority in the commons; and the boldness with which 

* Hildreth, i. 153, 154. 



A NEW ENGLAND EMEKGES FROM THE OLD. 91 

they defended their views showed that ruthless oppression 
had failed, and the contest must go on. " The interests of 
human freedom were at issue on the contest." 



THE PURITANS BECOME PILGRLMS IN SEARCH OF LIBERTY. 

The light of the Reformation would now, as ever hereafter, 
be the guide of freedom. Luther had said, " The gospel is 
every man's right, and it is not to be endured that any one 
should be kept therefrom. But the evangel is an open doc- 
trine : it is bound to no place, and moves along freely under 
heaven, like the star which ran in the sky to show the wiz- 
ards from the East where Christ was born. Do not dispute 
with the prince for place. Let the community choose their 
own pastor, and support him out of their own estates. If the 
prince will not suffer this, let the pastor flee into another 
land, ' and let those go with him who will, as Christ teaches.' " 

These words are great, and, in the main, wise, as the 
promptings of inspiration ; and they predict the plans of 
Providence for the emancipation of conscience, and the ex- 
tension of religious and civil freedom in the New World. 

We have thus fully identified the spirit and the movement 
out of which the colonization of New England and the lib- 
erties of our country arose. We must now leave the great 
mass of the Puritans to struggle with the usurpations of 
prelacy and the divine right of kings ; to battle their way up 
to the great Revolution ; to reveal their high virtues amid 
bloody persecutions and unjust inflictions of power, — intend- 
ed only to be " a terror to evil-doers and a praise to them that 
do well," — until the head of the royal oppressor rolls in the 
dust ; then to reveal their energy and their follies amid the 
prosperity of the Protectorate ; and again to suffer under 
the reigns of profligacy and bigotry after the Restoration, 
sometimes stealing away alone to pray, and daring even 
death itself to meet in " conventicles," and listen to the gos- 
pel from the lips of men who would peril their lives for 



92 THE GREAT rEPUBLIC. 

" the liberty of prophesying ; " then scattered abroad like 
the primitive saints after the stoning of Stephen, holding up 
the cross amid foreign people, and calling wandering strangers 
to the fountain of God's blessed word ; and finally becoming 
a diffused element of freedom, a leaven of godliness amid 
the nations, and especially the English, to appear in power 
and glory after many days. 

We must step back a few years to the later period of 
Elizabeth's reign, where, in the north of England, we shall 
find a small company, " a poor people," who " became en- 
lightened by the word of God," " presently both scoffed and 
scorned by the profane multitude, and their ministers urged 
with the yoke of subscription ; " led by suffering " to see 
that the beggarly ceremonies were monuments of idolatry," 
and that the lordly power of the prelates ought not to be 
submitted to. Man}^ of them, "whose hearts the Lord had 
touched with heavenly zeal for his truth," resolved, " what- 
ever it might cost them, to shake off the anti-Christian bond- 
age, and, as the Lord's free people, to join themselves by a 
covenant into a church estate in fellowship of the gospel." 
" Of the same faith with Calvin, heedless of acts of parlia- 
ment, they rejected ' the offices and callings, the courts and 
canons,' of bishops, and, renouncing all obedience to human 
authority in spiritual things, asserted for themselves an un- 
limited and never-ending right to make advances in truth, 
and ' walk in all the ways which God had made known or 
should make known to them.' " * John Robinson, " a man 
not easily to be paralleled," was the pastor of this despised 
and persecuted primitive flock. 

Probably through the agency of William Brewster, their 
attention was directed to Holland, " where, they heard, was 
freedom of religion for all men." They loved their home ; 
but they would leave it, and live anywhere, only so that they 
could have liberty to pray and prophesy according to the 
dictates of conscience. 

* Bancroft,!. 299-301. 



A NEW ENGLAND EMERGES FROM THE OLD. 93 

la 1608, after a costly failure the year before, the men 
had moved out to their ship ; but the vigihmee of the gov- 
ernment, which made it a crime to flee from persecution, 
detected them. " A company of horsemen appeared in pur- 
suit, and seized on the helpless women and children who had 
not yet adventured on the surf Pitiful it was to see the 
heavy care of these poor women in distress : what weeping 
and crying on every side ! " At last the magistrates, seeing 
no way to punish them for devotion to their husbands and 
fathers, " glad to be rid of them on any terms," suffered them 
to depart, " though, in the mean time, they, poor souls ! en- 
dured misery enough," 

Robinson, Brewster, and their little church, were now^ on 
the water; and henceforth they were " pilgrims." They were 
shortly in Amsterdam, but had no assurance that this was 
their home. " They knew that they were pilgrims, and looked 
not much on those things, but lifted up their eyes to heaven, 
their dearest country, and quieted their spirits." 

In 1609, they were in Leyden, when " they saw poverty 
coming on them like an armed man." However, " careful to 
keep their word, and painful and diligent in their callings," 
they soon reached " a comfortable condition, grew in the gifts 
and grace of the Spirit of God, and lived together in peace 
and love and holiness." " Never," the magistrates said, ''did 
we have any suit or accusation against any of them." Noble 
testimony ! Now^ the hope of prosperity dawned upon them. 
" Many came there from different parts of England, so as they 
grew a great congregation." They seemed to approach near 
to " the primitive pattern of the first churches," " such was 
the humble zeal and fervent love of this people towards God 
and his ways, and their single-heartedness and sincere affec- 
tion one towards another." * 

But they were not to remain here. God would make use 
of the bitter hatred of James, reaching to the Continent, 
and of the shyness of their brother Puritans, and of poverty 

* Bancroft, i. 303. 



94 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

and crushing toil, to stir them u]) to seek a permanent set- 
tlement in the New World. Even " their children, sharing 
their parents' burdens, bowed under the weight, and were 
becoming decrepit in early youth." 

God would thrust them out, but not under the patronage 
of Holland. Englishmen were to found the great governing 
colonies of the New World. Persecuted, and exiled from 
their native land, the " Pilgrims " were yet loyal English 
patriots, and would seek reconciliation with their govern- 
ment, so as to go out in search of a new province for James, 
their bitter persecutor. 

John Carver and Robert Cushman made the attempt, in 
the name of the Church of the Pilgrims, in 1617. They took 
over "the Seven Articles;" proposed to have "liberty to settle 
in the most northern parts of Virginia," "to live in a distinct 
body by themselves." They would consent to the Thirty-nine 
Articles, of course with their own Calvinistic interpretation; 
and " towards the king, and all civil authority derived from 
him, including bishops, whose civil authority they alone rec- 
ognized, they promised, as they would have done to Nero 
or the Roman pontiff, ' obedience in all things, — active if 
the thing commanded be not against God's word, or passive 
if it be.' " 

The Virginia Company and the London Company thought 
favorably of so good a prospect of adding new resources to 
their colonies by such accessions of industry and persistent 
energy as these men represented ; but they must refer the 
matter to higher authority. The great Lord Bacon was to 
be consulted before their petition could be granted by " the 
king, for liberty of religion, to be confirmed under the king's 
broad seal." Bacon was an active patron of the colonists 
everywhere, and, from the necessities of 23hilosophy, inclined 
to free toleration. This, however, was theory merely. Prac- 
tically he was "a crown courtier and an intolerant statesman." 
He therefore answered, " Discipline by bishops is fittest for 
monarchy of all others. The tenets of separatists and sec- 



A NEW ENGLAND EMERGES FROM THE OLD. 95 

taries are full of schism, and inconsistent with monarchy. 
The king will beware of Anabaptists, Brownists, and others 
of their kinds : a little connivancy sets them on fire. For 
the discipline of the Church in colonies, it will be necessary 
that it agree with that which is settled in England, else it 
will make a schism and a rent in Christ's coat, which must 
be seamless ; and, to that purpose, it will be fit, that by the 
king's supreme power in causes ecclesiastical, within all his 
dominions, they be subordinate under some bishop and bish- 
opric of this realm. This caution is to be observed, that 
if any transplant themselves into plantations abroad who 
are known schismatics, outlaws, or criminal persons, they 
be sent for back upon the first notice." 

Let the reader mark, that Providence did by no means in- 
tend to release his people from the strengthening power of 
severe discipline. He therefore, in this crisis of their strug- 
gles for self-emancipation, brought them into direct collision 
with the most stringent and vicious forms of oppressive bigot- 
ry. Still they were to be allowed to go. James, the Pharaoh 
of his country and times, must think the enlargement of his 
dominions " a good, an honest motive ; and fishing was an 
honest trade, the apostles' own calling." He would refer the 
matter to the prelates of Canterbury and London, and go on 
with his persecutions against the Puritans of Lancashire. In 
the mean time, a " promise of neglect " was all the anxious 
Pilgrims could obtain, and all the plans of God would allow. 
Discipline cleared up their vision, and they reasoned well. 
" If there shoidd afterwards be a purpose to wrong us, though 
we had a seal as broad as the house-floor, there would be 
means enough found to recall or reverse it. We must rest 
herein on God's providence." Thus they were brought to 
the most perfect renunciation of dependence upon man, and 
to the simplest forms of trust in God. 

They were, however, to be reached by another temptation. 
The want of means turned even the iron-willed Robinson to 
the Dutch ; but this unwise expedient was overruled. 



96 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

At last, in 1619, "the Virginia Company" " in open court 
demanded our ends of going ; which being related, they said 
the thing was of God, and granted a large patent." 

Resolved now not "to meddle with the Dutch, or to de- 
pend too much on the Virginia Company," relying upon God 
and their own endeavors, they made ready to depart. 

Onlv a part of the community could embark at a time in 
" The Speedwell " and " The Mayflower : " so the pastor re- 
mained with those who were to be left behind, and Brewster 
went forward with " such of the youngest and strongest as 
freely offered themselves." 

God must be solemnly recognized in fasting and prayer. 
" Let us seek of God a right way for us and for our little 
ones, and for all our substance." Read now the lofty breath- 
ings of liberty from the consecrated soul of Robinson, in his 
farewell address : — 

" I charge you, before God and his blessed angels, that you 
follow me no farther than you have seen me follow the Lord 
Jesus Christ. The Lord has more truth yet to break Ibrth 
out of his Holy Word. I cannot sufficiently bewail the con- 
dition of the reformed churches, who are come to a period 
in religion, and will go at present no farther than the in- 
struments of their reformation. Luther and Calvin were 
great and shining lights in their times ; yet they penetrated 
not into the whole counsel of God. 1 beseech you re- 
member it, — 'tis an article of your church covenant, — 
that you be ready to receive whatever truth shall be made 
known to you from the written word of God." These far- 
reaching instructions may well be deemed equivalent to the 
suggestions of inspirations. 

One scene more before the departure. " When the ship 
was ready to carry us away," writes Edward Winslow, " the 
brethren that staid at Leyden again solemnly sought the 
Lord with us and for us ; feasted us that were to go at our 
pastor's house, being large; where we refreshed ourselves, 
after tears, with singing of psalms, tnaking joyful melody 



A NEW ENGLAND EMERGES FROM THE OLD. 97 

in our hecarts as well as with the voice, there being many, 
of the congregation very expert in music: and, indeed, it 
was the sweetest melody that ever mine ears heard. After 
this, they accompanied us tt) Delfthaven, where we went to 
embark, and there feasted us again ; and after prayer per- 
formed by our pastor, when a floo^ of tears was poured 
out, they accompanied us to the ship, but were not able 
to speak one to another for the abundance of sorrow to 
part. But we only, going aboard, gave them a volley of 
small-shot and three pieces of ordnance ; and so, lifting 
up our hands to each other and our hearts for each other 
to the Lord our God, we departed." 

It would seem very strange that any sifting or reduction 
of this small force for the foundinsc of free institutions in 
the New World should be required or even allowed. But 
God sees not as man sees. He who, for an important mili- 
tary undertaking, reduced the army of Gideon, made choice 
of one of the two vessels chartered to bear the Pilo;rims to 
America. " The Speedwell/' unseawortliy, could return to 
Eno;land, "and those who are willin* return to London, 
though this was very grievous and discouraging;" while 
"The Mayflower, " freighted with "one hundred and two 
souls," could move on to her providential destination. " On 
the sixth day of September, 1620, thirteen years after the 
first colonization of Virginia, two months before the conces- 
sion of the grand charter of Plj^mouth, without any warrant 
from the sovereign of England, without any useful charter 
from a corporate body, the pass.engers in ' The Mayflower ' 
set sail for a new world, where the past could offer no favor- 
able auguries." * They propose to make the mouth of the 
Hudson ; but, under the guidance of Providence, they are 
sailing toward " the rock-bound coast," named years before, 
by the gallant Capt. John Smith, New England*. 

See that frail " pilgrim craft afloat upon the waste of wa- 
ters " ! Witt not she 2ro down amid the surares of ocean as 

o o 

* Bancroft, i. 308. 
13 



98 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

she " leaps madly from billow to billow " ? No : these are the 
chosen of God. No surges of ocean can overwhelm them, 
from which they will not emerge ; no w^eapon formed against 
them can prevail. In the land of oppression, they had sighed 
for liberty. They had tasted its sweets, and seen its golden 
light, until at length, ^s God ordained, in comparison with 
it, property and home and friends lost their power to charm ; 
and they would go to a wild and savage land in pursuit of 
one object alone, — "freedom to worship God." There was 
no danger to "The Mayflower." She was "the ark of a 
deluged world." She would bear proudly and gallantly her 
precious burden to her predestined haven. " The model Re- 
public was in ' The Mayflower.' " 



THE PILGRIMS HAVE FOUND LIBERTY. 

The ocean was very boisterous, and the voyage one of ex- 
treme peril ; but, after sixty-five days of sailing and praying, 
" The Mayflower " rounded the hook of Cape Cod, and cast 
anchor in a quiet harbor. The landing, however, must not 
be made until they had determined the fundamental form of 
their government ; and thus they wrote and covenanted : — 

" In the name of God, amen. We whose names are under- 
written, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign. King James, 
having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement 
of the Christian faith, and honor of our king and country, a 
voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Vir- 
ginia, do, by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the 
presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine 
ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better 
ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends afore- 
said ; and, by virtue hereof, to enact, constitute, and frame 
such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and 
offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most conve- 
nient for the general good of the colony. Unto which we 
promise all due submission and obedience." 



A KEW ENGLAND EaiEIlGES PEOM THE OLD. 99 

How admirably clear and concise is this great document! 
Never were more important words written by uninspired 
men. They were no rebels against the crown of England ; 
and hence they declare their loyalty to James, their lawful 
sovereign according to apostolic order. But they formed 
"a civil body politic," and thus asserted the right to self- 
government. Who had a right to forbid them ? They had 
suffered every thing but death, sacrificed all the endearments 
of home, become pilgrims on earth, all to be free ; and they 
would be free, they were free : and as if all unconscious of 
the nobleness of soul which gave formal utterance to these 
exalted principles, and regardless of the fearful struggles it 
would cost to maintain them, they resolved to act as law- 
makers and civil rulers, simply and only "for the general 
good of the colony." 

But it should be henceforth impossible to misunderstand 
them. They were not a company of mercenary adven- 
turers. Their personal convenience and worldly interests 
were all subordinate to a lofty Christian purpose, which men 
purely selfish would find it impossible to comprehend. They 
had undertaken this whole daring enterprise " for the glory 
of God, and advancement of the Christian faith." This is 
the highest conception of man on earth, j:he loftiest moral 
grandeur within the range of human thought and expres- 
sion ; and, despite all the frailties and errors inevitably hu- 
man appearing in their future, history nobly vindicates the 
sincerity and practical effectiveness of this high resolve. 
The record and the deeds are immortal. 

And let it not be forgotten that this was clear, unquestion- 
able advance in the assertion of human rights. In the Pil- 
grims, the race had stepped forward of its boldest ventures 
in the direction of civil liberty. There had been republics 
before ; high claims had been set up for the rights of man in 
the Old World and the New, and death-struggles had been 
risked to vindicate them: but "this was the birth of popular 
constitutional liberty." * 

* Bancroft, i. 310. 



100 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

Well indeed it was that an attempt so bold, and defiant 
of precedents and power, an achievement so improbable, 
should be midertaken " in the name of God ; " that a covenant 
so holy, and bearing in its bosom the fate of uncounted mil- 
lions, should be made " in the presence of God," and avowed- 
ly and sincerely "for the glory of God and the advancement 
of the Christian fliith." In this alone there was hope of 
success ; and we shall see, as we advance, that our Pilgrim 
Fathers had thus identified and recognized the essential life- 
force of the great American system, — the vital active sov- 
ereignty of God. Well, therefore, did President Stiles say, 
in 1783, "It is certain that civil dominion was but the 
second motive, religion the primary one, with our ances- 
tors, in coming hither, and settling this land. It was not 
so much their design to establish religion for the benefit of 
the State, as civil government for the benefit of religion, 
and as subservient, and even necessary, to the peaceable 
enjoyment and unmolested exercise of religion, — of that 
religion for which they fled to these ends of the earth." 



CHAPTER Vm. 

COLONIZATION AND LIBERTY IN MASSACHUSETTS. . 

" Soon after the Reformation, a few people came over for conscience' sake. This 
apparently trivial incident may transfer the great seat of empire into America." — 
John Adams. 

Our Christian emigrants land on Cape Cod, just in the rear 
of our j)resent beautiful Provincetown ; but they touch the 
land onlj to thank God, and begin the work of exploration 
for the site of their town. Their home is yet in " The May- 
flower." It was chilly November. " It snowed, and did blow 
all the day and night, and froze withal." They must be in 
haste to prepare for their shivering families a cover from 
the storms of winter. Standish and Bradford could not wait 
sixteen days for repairing the shallop. Regardless of perils 
from the Indians, they pushed out by land, but found no 
place for a settlement. The shallop was now out coasting 
for some feir haven and for the land of promise ; but those 
who landed to search " were tired marching up and down 
the steep hills and deep valleys, which lay half a foot thick 
with snow." Thanks to Providence, the Indians had buried 
a little corn there for this dreadful time of need. Brave 
men continue the search. The war-whoop and death-arrows 
salute them as they rise from their morning prayers. "The 
Mayflower " moves along the coast, and seems about to wreck 
amid a storm of dreadful fury ; but God moves a sailor to cry 
out to her frightened pilot, "About with her, or we are cast 
away! " " About " she turns, skims over the surf, and is safe. 
Noble men are on the land ; demands are urg-ent : but thev 

' CD V 

will by no means break the holy sabbath. On Monday they 



X02 THE GEEAT REPUBLIC^ 

are in " The Mayflower," and she moves cautiously. At length, 
on the " eleventh day of December, old style, the exploring 
party of the forefathers land " on the rock henceforth to be 
sacred in history as the place on which New-Engla-nd freedom 
first firmly set her foot and began her mighty work. 



TJpE MEN AND THE TIME. 

Such men as our Pilgrim sires would not have been the 
world's choice for the founding of a new empire, at least not 
with the unpropitious events which crowded around Plym- 
outh Rock. But what wisdom and foresight could have 
been more evidently infinite ? The Pilgrims were a hardy 
race, a firm, enduring stock. Trained to self-reliance under 
the direct guidance of Providence, baptized in the sea of 
suffering, they had the certain combinations of vast and 
irresistible power. Purer, nobler blood never flowed in An- 
glo-Saxon veins. Religion was their element, their grand 
controlling power. They must worship. The triune Jehovah 
had revealed himself to them, and they were divinely moved 
to adore him in spirit and in truth, in public and in private ; 
and when, in the land of their birth, they found they could 
not, they fled as from the plague, ready to go to the ends 
of the earth for the privilege of hearing the pure gospel 
preached, and offering up fervent prayers without the pres- 
ence of a domineering, execrable censorship. 

They threw open the Holy Bible, and bade their sons 
and their daughters look in and see heaven's own light 
with their own eyes, before they were tempted to believe 
that only a dismal night of scepticism and woe was reserved 
for this guilty state. 

What could be more evident than the movement of a 
God among the suffering ones of the Old World, in stirring 
the spirit of enterprise, pouring dauntless courage into 
their throbbing bosoms, selecting the choicest among them, 
imbuing them with the spirit of a new social system, and 



COLONIZATION AND LIBERTY IN MASSACHUSETTS. 103 

guiding them to the chosen kind ? What but Divinity 
could have produced such recognitions of his sovereio-n 
authority, the acceptance of a mission so mysterious and so 
difficult, and the high resolves and sustained energy mani- 
fest in every step of their wonderful career ? 

They were here at length to toil, to battle, to pray, and 
at length to die, but not until they had sent their heroic 
blood coursing down through the veins of future generations 
to the end of time. Here they would bravely enact the 
pledges of their farewell address on the strand of Delfthaven 
on the morning of their embarkation. " We are actuated," 
they said, " by the hope of laying some foundation, or making 
way for the propagation of the kingdom of Christ to the re- 
mote ends of the earth, though we shall be but the stepping- 
stones to others." " Laying some foundation." Yes ; and 
what a foundation they laid ! The lapse of ages will but 
suffice to show its amazing solidity and breadth. " The king- 
dom of Christ." How sublimely their ideas of government 
and the destiny of man rose above the grovelling concep- 
tions of avarice and ambition ! " The propagation of the 
kingdom of Christ to the remote ends of the earth." Did 
ever a feeble colony venture upon the heaving bosom of the 
ocean, to plant themselves upon a foreign shore amid wild 
and merciless savages, for such an objectifas this ? The truth 
is, the whole movement was, in all its grand features, super- 
human, a clear demonstration of a reigning Divinity in tl^e 
affairs of men. 

The period of this colonization was timely. Had it been 
"immediately on the discovery of the American continent, 
the old English institutions would have been planted un- 
der the powerful influence of the Roman-Catholic religion ; 
had the settlement been made under Elizabeth, it would have 
been before activity of the popular mind in religion had con- 
ducted to a corresponding activity in politics ; " * had it 
been before the orders for conformity and the bitter perse- 
cutions for attempts to exercise the rights of conscience, 

* Bancroft, i. 308. 



104 THE GREAT KEPUBLIC. 

New England might have been settled, like Virginia, by the 
advocates of prelacy and the divine right of kings. The 
deadly incubus of caste, and of aristocratic exemptions from 
labor, and the expenses of government, would have borne 
down New England to the level of the old civilization. But 
the omniscient God had all these contingencies before him, 
and controlled the events which were likely to interfere with 
the certainty and high moral purposes of his general plan. 
Hence it was not courtiers nor nobles, not the scions of worn- 
out pretending families, but hard-handed, brave-souled, prac- 
tical men, who were to colonize New England • and, at the 
ris;ht time, Providence sent them out on their great mission. 



PLYMOUTH COLONY. 

Who can describe the gratitude and joy of these wander- 
ing pilgrims ? True, they were shivering with cold ; they were 
surrounded by savages whose hostility they must dread even 
when they seemed to be friendly. Fierce hunger gnawed 
at their vitals, and gaunt famine stared them in the face ; 
but their Christian heroism endured the trial. They knelt 
as they stepped upon the rock, and poured out their souls 
in prayer to Ilim whose glory they sought ; and he heard 
and answered. ^ 

They proceeded at once to build a town ; and what should 
they call it ? On the map made by Capt. Smith, the harbor 
had been called " Plymouth." They had finally sailed fiom 
Plymouth in dear Old England. It was providential : they 
were in Plymouth again in New England ; and Plymouth it 
should be. 

Now God appeared in charge of this vast but unimposing 
interest. lie moved the savages to say, " Welcome, English- 
men!" or, when they would not listen to moderate counsel, 
he would permit the redoubtable Standish to scatter them 
as chaff before the wind. He would give the emigrants 
Indian corn and fish and game enough to keep the colony 



COLOXIZATIO!^ AND LIBERTY IN MASSACHUSETTS. 105 

from extinction by starvation, and yet he would drive them 
by hunger and want to the cultivation of the soil. 

They had commenced to exercise the rights of freemen ; 
but would this be tolerated ? Would the crown be satisfied 
with assurances of loyalty in every thing not in conflict with 
the word of God, and grant them civil and religious freedom? 
It wa3 at least very improbable. 

At the end of a year, thirty-five additional colonists arrived; 
and Cushman was with them. He brought a patent for the 
Pilojrims from the Council for New Endand. This made 
Massachusetts distinct from Virginia. They could not be 
identical. Their settlements were too remote ; and they were 
to represent rival, and in some respects antagonist ideas of 
man and liberty. They must demonstrate their theories, and 
tr}^ the strength of their opposing principles, quite apart from 
each other, before the great facts of their unity could- become 
evident and practical. 

Cushman would make but a brief stay ; lecture the peo- 
ple severely " on the sin and danger of self-love ; " gather 
his cargo of "furs, sassafras, clapboards, and wainscots," worth 
about twenty-four hundred dollars; and hasten back to report 
to " the merchant adventurers" the prospects of their invest- 
ments in money and Puritan industry for seven years. He 
would also become "a confidential agent" of the Plymouth 
Colony in London. We can but wish he had brought over 
a supply of provisions in " The Fortune," as the colonists were 
near to starving ; and that he had succeeded in securing a 
charter of liberty from the government: but they must do 
without this charter until they have full opportunity to 
strengthen their self-reliance, and battle energetically with 
conservative repression at home. 

LIBERTY REVEALS HER FORM AND STRENGTH. 

How much we wish that good John Robinson could come 
from Leyden with the company left behind, when the Pil- 



106 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

grims sail from Delfthaven ! He would be a power In tlie 
struggles with the crown. But he never came. By the 
cruel plottings of " the adventurers in England." he was re- 
fused a passage ; and the Church of the Pilgrims must be 
denied the privilege of hearing the voice and receiving the 
care of their own beloved pastor, that bigoted Churchmen 
might force upon them the yoke of a State religion and the 
services of a dreaded ritual. This, as it was fit, would be 
one of the first issues with the despotism from Avliich they 
had fled. " The character of the Church had for many ^-ears 
been fixed by a sacred covenant. As the Pilgrims landed, 
their institutions w^ere already perfected. Democratic liberty 
and independent Christian worship at once existed in Amer- 
ica." * This principle they could therefore by no means give 
up. " For the first eight years, there was no pastor " but 
Kobinson in Holland. " Lyford, sent out by the London part- 
ners," makes the attempt to bring them under the control 
of Church authority ; but he is rejected, and expelled from 
the colon}^ They prefer to worship in their own simple 
way, and wait the action of Providence to give them a pas- 
tor after their own hearts. The fort they had erected for 
defence against the Indians became their house of worship, 
as near to heaven and acceptable to God as any gorgeous 
cathedral in England. " Brewster, the ruling elder, and such 
private members as had the gift of prophecy, officiated as 
exhorters. On Sunday afternoons, a question was propound- 
ed, to whicli all spoke who had any thing to say." f So the 
Pilgrims stand firm, and refuse yet to come under the bond- 
age of ceremonies. I suppose the Yankees have the irrev- 
erence to smile, even at this day, when they read, that, in 
1623, Robert Gorges, the son of Sir Ferdinand, " appointed 
lieutenant-general of New England, with power ' to restrain 
interlopers' not less than to regulate the affairs of the corpo- 
ration," brought with him one " Morrill, an Episcopal clergy- 
man, who was provided with a commission for the superin- 

* Bancroft, i. 313. t Hildrcth, i. 175. 



COLONIZATIOISr AXD LIBERTY IN MASSACHUSETTS. IQT 

tendence of ecclesiastical affairs. Instead of establishing a 
hierarchy, Morrill, remaining in New England about a year, 
wrote a description of the country in verse ; while the civil 
dignity of Robert Gorges ended in a short-lived dispute with 
Weston. They came to plant a hierarchy and a general 
government, and they produced only a fruitless quarrel and 
a dull poem."* 

" The grand charter of Plymouth " neither advanced nor 
impeded New England in matters of civil liberty. Neither 
their independence nor thrift waited for charter rights. Go- 
ing on vv^ith their characteristic plan of managing for them- 
selves, they bought out the " English adventurers," whose 
capital had furnished the means for beginning their colony. 
Submitting to a monopoly from eight of their own number 
for six years, they began to assert the rights of property in 
their own labor, and work their way up to business independ- 
ence. 

And all this was done in the name of relii^ion, and in 
firm dependence upon Almighty God. His guidance was 
humbly invoked upon every occasion, and the promotion of 
his glory avowed as the grand motive of all tfteir resistance 
to tyranny, and vigorous efforts to constitute a government 
upon the basis of justice. To divest the history of Massa- 
chusetts of its divine element would be to utterly destroy it. 

COLONIES INCREASE. 

Plymouth will soon be the centre of a neighborhood of 
colonies. Englishmen were rapidly coming to 'the apprehen- 
sion that a splendid empire would some day arise in America. 
A lucrative trade seemed to be easily within reach, and they 
promptly grasped for advantages which might soon be be- 
yond reach. 

An early attempt at a settlement near Weymouth had 
resulted disastrously. This was now renewed. But the most 

* Bancroft, i. 326. 



108 . THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

important demonstration began in 1624, near Cape Ann. It 
was meant to be a profitable business enterprise; but it 
received a higher impulse from " White, a minister of Dor- 
chester, a Puritan, but not a Separatist. Roger Conant, 
having already left New Plymouth for Nantasket," became 
the agent and the hero of this adventure. The merchants, 
discouraged by the want of profits, settled honorably with 
those they had employed, and gave up " the uriprofitable 
scheme ; " but Conant, " inspired as it were by some supe- 
rior instinct," united with White and a few others, determined 
to persist in the endeavor to establish a colony ; " and, mak- 
ing choice of Salem as opening a convenient place of refuge 
for the exiles for religion, they resolved to remain as sen- 
tinels of Puritanism on the Bay of Massachusetts." 

In 1628, four years later, a more formidable combination 
of Puritan strength and enterprise appears in England for 
the relio;ious colonization of New Eno;land. " The constraints 
of the Encrlish laws, and the severities of the English hie- 
rarcliy," threw the advocates of freedom more fully than ever 
upon the care of Providence. Great names, and men full of 
business energy and religious zeal, are found in the organi- 
zation which followed. They wished " a charter from the 
crown," obtained the friendship of the Earl of Warwick and 
Sir Ferdinando Gorge.^, and secured from the Council of 
Plymouth for New England " a large district on the Charles 
River." " Endicott, who, ' ever since the Lord in mercy had 
revealed himself unto him,' had maintained the straitest 
judgment against the outward form of God's worship as 
prescribed by 'English statutes ; a man of dauntless courage, 
and that cheerfulness which accompanies courage ; benevo- 
lent, though austere ; firm, though choleric ; of a rugged 
nature, which his stern principles of nonconformity had not 
served to mellow, — was selected as a ' fit instrument to begin 
the wilderness-work.' " With " his wife and family, the hos- 
tages of his irrevocable attachment to the New World," he 
arrived in September. His party, with those he found there, 



COLOXIZATION' AND LIBERTY IN MASSACHUSETTS. 109 

numbered some fifty or sixty ; and with these he " founded 
the oldest town in the colony, soon to be called Salem," and 
with eagle eye began to move about the future " hub of the 
universe." 

" Thomas "Walford, a blacksmith," was now at Charles- 
town ; " William Blackstone, an Episcopal clergyman," was 
on the opposite peninsula ; ^' Samuel Maverick, son of a 
pious nonconformist minister," but " himself a prelatist," 
was on " the island now known as East Boston ; " and " stras:- 
glers " were " at Nantasket and farther south." A small be- 
ginning, one would say, for the elegant commercial city of 
Boston, " the Athens of America," only a little more than 
two hundred years ago. Let us hope that " the unruly com- 
pany in what is now Quincy " profited by the faithfulness 
of our Puritan governor, who '• visited them in person," 
and " rebuked them for their profane revels, and monished 
them to look there should be better walking." 

We now come to an epoch of great importance in the 
history of America. A new monarch had ascended the 
throne of England. Urged by " the time-serving courtier. 
Lord Dorchester," and prompted by fear of the Dutch, who 
" were already trading in the Connecticut River," and the 
French, who '• claimed New England as within the limits of 
New France," and discouraged by the repeated failures 
of " the prelatical party," and finally moved by "an offer of 
' Boston men ' that promised good to the plantation," on 
the 4th of March, 1G29, "a few days only before Charles I., 
in a public State paper, avowed his purpose of reigning 
without a parliament, the broad seal of England was put to 
the letters-patent for Massachusetts." 

" The charter, which was cherished for more than half a 
century as the most precious boon, constituted a body politic 
by the name of the Governor and Company of the Massa- 
chusetts Bay in New England." The " governor, deputy, and 
eighteen assistants," were to be " elected annually by the 
freemen or members of the corporation." This was a most 



110 THE GP.EAT REPUBLIC. 

important concession, made by a despotic sovereign. Provi- 
dence directed the profligate Charles II. to record the judg- 
ment, that " the principle and foundation of the charter of 
Massachusetts was the freedom of liberty of conscience ; " 
and would see that the privileges it conferred should be 
passed over unimpaired to the struggling Puritans of New 
England. The advocates of prelacy and civil despotism 
would not emigrate in large numbers to the land of trials 
and fanatical reformers ; but swarms of praying Pilgrims 
w^ould come hither, and be sure to construe every word of 
the charter, and the very neglects of the king, in favor of 
their own asserted rights. This alone was necessary to found 
successfully the great free State of Massachusetts. 

With this charter came a goodly company of emigrants, 
and just in time to revive the drooping spirits of the rem- 
nants of former colonists settled in and about Salem. 
Charlestown received a portion of the new population, and a 
town was laid out " about the hill." Higginson, the ordained 
teacher of Salem, availed himself of the press to rouse atten- 
tion in England to the claims of this new country, and was 
successful. " The concessions of the Massachusetts charter 
seemed to the Puritans like a summons from heaven, inviting 
them to America ; " and on they came. 

The 28th of July, 1G29, marks another grand transition 
period in the history of freedom in America. On this day, 
" Matthew Cradock, governor of the company-," proposed 
" the transfer of the government of the plantation to those 
that should inhabit there;" and this would bring "persons 
of worth and quality" to the New World. "Wealthy com- 
moners, zealous Puritans, were confirmed in the desire of 
founding a new and a better commonwealth beyond the At- 
lantic, even though it might involve the sale of their heredi- 
tary estates, and hazard the inheritance of their children." 

Now the noble Winthrop appears with hi§ eleven associ- 
ates, who "bound themselves in the presence of God, by the 
word of a Christian, that if, before the end of September, 



COLONIZATION AND LIBERTY IN MASSACHUSETTS. HI 

an order of the court should legally transfer the whole 
government, together with the patent, they would them- 
selves pass the seas to inhabit and continue in New Eng- 
land." Singularly enough, " two days after this covenant 
had been executed, a general consent appeared, by the 
erection of hands, that the government and patent should 
be settled in New Ent:;land." Henceforth the officers of the 
colony would reside in the midst of the people. 

The new emigration set forward ; and, " during the season 
of 1630, seventeen vessels brought over not far from a thou- 
sand souls, beside horses, kine, goats, and all that was most 
necessary for planting, fishing, and ship-building." 

John Winthrop was elected governor, and he was a man 
of rare excellences. Mild, loving, and firm, he was well 
adapted to overcome the discontents of his comrades. A 
royalist and conformist at home, he, nevertheless, had a 
strong desire for " gospel purity," and the highest forms 
of liberty under the British Government. He tvould be an 
heroic representative of the transition period from the Ref- 
ormation to Republicanism, an inflexible defender of order 
and progressive freedom. 

Salem did not suit Winthrop as the head of the colony. 
Looking for a better place, on the 17th of June, 1630, he 
sailed into Boston Harbor ; and, as the result of the exami- 
nation, headquarters were soon removed to Charlestown ; and 
Boston, with its populous environs, soon begins its career of 
greatness and wealth as the commercial and civil metropolis 
of a great State. 

It is not necessary to trace farther the growth of colonies 
in Massachusetts. We have advanced far enough to obtain 
a clear and comprehensive view of the vital principles 
which constructed and developed the civil and religious 
institutions of the Commonwealth. Let us now observe a 
little more minutely the application and limitations of these 
principles. 



112 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 



CHRISTIANITY AND FREEDOM IN MASSACHUSETTS. 

We have seen with what a profound sense of responsibility 
to Gocl the Puritans renounced their homes in England, and 
became pilgrims in quest of liberty. It is not now, how- 
ever, their acknowledgment of God merely that requires our 
attention. The argument is deeper. The question is, ^yhat 
power was alone sufficient to produce the phenomena which 
have passed before us ? In examining the history of dis- 
coveries in America, and considering the colonization of Vir- 
ginia and the minor members of the Southern group, we 
have found that restless vagrancy and ambitious avarice 
could produce daring adventure, and heroic efforts to found 
despotic institutions. We have seen also the struggles of a 
purer vitalizing force in the midst of these dominant im- 
pulses, gradually forcing its way to position as the true and 
rightful forming power of nations. 

In the movement now under consideration, the representa- 
tive colonists are stripped of all State patronage, and are 
exiles first in a land of civilization, and then in a land of sav- 
ages. Simple subsistence would seem to be enough to tax 
their highest energies. If comfort and abundance should be 
achieved, it must, one would say, be the result of an entire 
devotion to worldly pursuits. But they make a mere inci- 
dent of worldly pursuits. Their grand absorbing object is 
the worship and glory of God. They see that freedom of 
conscience for themselves is indispensable to this result. A 
clearer light shines deep down into their souls, and far out 
into the world and the future, and reveals liberty from thral- 
dom of sin, from oppressions of governments civil and eccle- 
siastical, as the inherent, inalienable right of all good men. 
Whence but from heaven could this light come ? The world, 
in its highest ellbrts of reason, has refused to supply it. The 
light from God is clear and searching and steady. Coming 
from this source, how evidently would it be adequate to 
reveal the spirit and designs of human freedom as deter- 



COLONIZATION AND LIBERTY IN IVIASSACHXJSETTS. 113 

mmed in the original creation of mind, and to show the 
enormous crime of usurpation which denies, and attempts to 
crush, these inborn rights ! 

In the same way must we account for that firm adherence 
to right amidst the storms of persecution and the trials 
of colonization which the history of the Pilgrims reveals. 
What need had they to go to Amsterdam or Leyden or 
Plymouth ? They had nothing to do but " conform " to the 
wicked exactions of despotic power, and go on and prosper 
like other subjects of the British crown. But the souls of 
the martyrs were in them. Suffering and right were to them 
infinitely preferable to royal flivor and a dishonored con- 
science. And how came it so? No worldly power, no selfish 
philosophy, ever gave them or others this lofty heroism while 
they floated with the mass of unquestioning sycophants in 
the wake of power. Admitting, however, that the plans of 
God for the emancipation of thought and conscience had 
matured ; that he had opened a virgin hemisphere for the 
planting and growth of a higher, purer civilization; and 
that he himself would undertake, by the discipline of suffer- 
ing and inward regeneration, to provide the men for the 
movement which would illustrate these grand designs : what 
could have been more appropriate than the strange power 
of endurance and enterprise for the vindication of liberty 
which we have seen in these Puritan Pilgrims ? 

Just as evidently would the active agency of God in the 
souls of the colonists connect inseparably the rights of 
conscience and civil liberty. It is, however, in exact con- 
formity with this theory of the providential colonization 
of New England, that the conflict should show our Puritan 
sires constantly engaged in the spirit of earnest prayer; that, 
when they formed the basis of constitutional government in 
"The Mayflower," they should do everything in the name of 
God, and in solemn dependence upon his wisdom and grace; 
that all attempts to coerce them should utterly fail, serving 
only to render more illustrious their supreme devotion to 



114 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

exalted principle. It is thus easy to explain the undeniable 
fact that they stepped boldly forward of their nation and 
age in announcing new powers of humanity, and demonstrat- 
ing the capability of man for a higher range of honor and 
glory on earth than had ever before been deemed possible. 
This is God in history, God in America. 

The illustrations of these positions, and especially of the 
inseparable identity of the rule of God and the develop- 
ment of the higher forms of liberty in the minds of the 
Puritans, are so numerous and striking, that selections are 
difficult. 

" To the European world, the few tenants of the huts and 
cabins of Salem were too insignificant to merit notice. To 
themselves, they were chosen emissaries of God ; outcasts 
from England, yet favorites with Heaven ; destitute of se- 
curity, of convenient food, and of shelter, and yet blessed as 
instruments selected to light in the wilderness the beacon of 
pure religion. The emigrants were not so much a body pol- 
itic as a church in the wilderness, seeking, under a visible 
covenant, to have fellowship with God, as a family of adopt- 
ed sons." 

" The New World shared in the providence of God : it had 
claims, therefore, to the benevolence and exertions of man. 
What nobler work than to abandon the comforts of England, 
and plant a church without a blemish, where it might spread 
over a continent ? " 

" The ill success of other plantations could not chill the 
rising enthusiasm. Former enterprises had aimed at profit : 
the present object was purity of religion. The earlier settle- 
ments had been filled with a lawless multitude : it was now 
proposed to form a " peculiar government," and to colonize 

THE BEST." 

When officers were to be elected at a verj^ full General 
Court, " it was resolved that the business should be proceeded 
on with its first intention, which was chiefly the glory of 
God ; and to that purpose its meetings were sanctified by 



COLOXIZATIOX ANTD LIBERTY IN MASSACHUSETTS. Ho 

the prayers and guided by the advice of two faithful min- 
istCL-s in London." "^^ 

And there were faithful ministers with the colonies. The 
liberal Samuel Skelton, and " the able, faithful, and grave 
Francis Higgins," — the one elected pastor, and the other 
teacher, in Salem, — took care that the people should not 
perish lor lack of knowledge. 

"The enjoyment of the gospel as the dearest covenant 
that can be made between God and man was the chief object 
of the emigrants." They therefore took care to organize 
their churches after the simple model of their own under- 
standing of worship and the condition of the primitive Chris- 
tian Church. Thus Winthrop, Dudley, Isaac Johnson, and Wil- 
son became a church by covenant, — " the seminal centre of 
the ecclesiastical system of New England ; " and honest John 
Wilson was chosen the first pastor of " the first church of 
Boston." Roger Williams, renowned in the ecclesiastical and 
civil history of the Republic and the world, came hither to 
accomplish a mission not yet understood ; but he must have 
his place here among the worthies whose religion required 
and could produce freedom from " Episcopal and malignant 
practices." Cotton, Eliot the Ajjostle to the Indians, and 
a host of faithful godly men, appear in the train, all breath- 
ing devout tempers and manly independence. 

Winthrop, the scholar, the statesman, and future govern- 
or of Massachusetts, may represent the spirit of the whole 
movement. " I shall call that my country," he said in a let- 
ter to his honored father, " where I may most glorify God, 
and enjoy the presence of my dearest friends. Therefore 
herein I submit myself to God's will and yours, and dedicate 
myself to God and the Company with the whole endeavors 
both of body and mind. The conclusions which you set 
down are unanswerable ; and that cannot but be a pros- 
perous action which is so well allowed by the judgments 
of God's prophets, undertaken by so religious and wise 

* Bancroft, i. 347-351. 



116 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

worthies in Israel, and indented to God's glory in so special 
A service." This is the statesmanship of New-England col- 
onization. 

LIMITATIONS OF LIBERTY IN MASSACHUSETTS. 

The reader will observe that we have written not to eulo- 
gize any thing, nor defend every thing, in the Puritan charac- 
ter or opinions or administration. We have examined their 
history with one object alone, — to identify the divine in the 
origin and development of American institutions, and place 
the action of Providence in clear relief before the world. 

It is now time to admit that much which was merely 
human mingled with the divine in this movement, and that 
the liberty of Puritanism had its limitations, and required, as 
it received, the accession of other elements to make it ge- 
nial, practical, and thoroughly American. 

Its theology included the Calvinistic interpretation of the 
Thirty-nine Articles, the strong tendency of which was not 
only to harmonize the permission of moral evil with the di- 
vine plans, but to make sin in itself a part of those plans. 
The practical eflect would naturally be to weaken hope in 
moral appeals to individual responsibility, and strengthen 
the idea of coercion, of which, in the most rigid forms of 
faith, God would be the great example in every thing. The 
first grand obstacle, therefore, that liberty must meet in the 
New World, would be the theoretical limitation of the will. 
Carried to what would seem its leo;itimate extreme, this 
limitation would be fatal to liberty ; for, if the soul itself is 
not free, there can be no freedom anywhere. 

But it is not in the nature of mind to make this limitation 
thoroughly practical. The instantaneous action of volition, 
and the freedom of choice, will make place for the fact of 
accountability: and, if the limitation of the will is held to be 
absolute, the freeness of the act and the guilt of the trans- 
gression will claim its place by its side ; anil, with more or 
less attempt at reconciliation, freedom will become the great 



COLONIZATION AND LIBERTY IN JIASSACHUSETTS. 117 

practical law of liunian life. This was Puritanism. In its 
first forms, it was a prompt, bold, and indignant protest 
against the infringements of liberty by the usurpations of 
kings and prelates ; then it was the most patient and en- 
during of all forms of suffering among men; and finally it 
was the uprising of an innate sense of justice, that would 
bear down every thing which dared to oppose it. This was 
the real freedom of the will; and the Puritans asserted it, in 
the most energetic form possible to man, by daring heroic 
action. They were, therefore, the most thorough Protestants 
(protest-ants) in the world. It was vain to say that this 
grand resurrection of liberty did not belong to their system. 
They made it belong ; and, practically, all limitations of the 
will were forced to conform to the rising power of personal 
freedom. 

If, however, there was something in the severe doctrines of 
Calvin which suggested, and had a strong tendency to pro- 
duce, intolerance, that tendency would be greatly strength- 
ened by long connection with systems of despotic power ; 
and, when the misrule of authority was thrown off, authority 
itself in favor of the right would be likely to be retained. 
While the enormous wrong of a formal ritualistic State re- 
ligion would appear, it might be deemed a grand achieve- 
ment to establish a pure, simple, saving religion by law ; 
and this was the real direction and grave error of the Puri- 
tan mind. While their whole souls rose up in resistance to 
every attempt to compel men to do wrong, they esteemed 
it a high virtue and a moral necessity to compel them to do 
right. 

This will explain the rigid exactions of the colonial gov- 
ernment in fiivor of the sabbath, going to church, paying 
the minister, and the like, which gave the Puritans the repu- 
tation of " blue lights." These were excellent things to do ; 
but the religious power of man could not be coerced. The 
same explanation is true of the exclusiveness of "the stand- 
ing order " by which it was affirmed that men were ruined 



lis THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

if they used their liberty in the establishment of the English 
Church, or attempted to disturb the rights of "the Lord's 
people " by introducing the '• pestilent heresy " of Arminian- 
ism into New England. It explains, but by no means vindi- 
cates, Puritan intolerance. It is both curious and lament- 
able to see the extreme spirit of Protestantism reaching 
the very proscriptive bigotry of Romanism, and the brave 
assertion of Puritan rights resulting in the bitter persecuting 
intolerance of prelacy ; and yet historical fidelity compels 
the admission. We must confess, however reluctantly, that 
the spirit of proscription and intolerance in New England is 
exactly identical with the same spirit v.'hicli we found in 
Virti;inia. 

Hence, when John and Samuel Browne would not consent 
to the Congregationalism of Salem, and '' gathered a companj^ 
in which ' the common-prayer worship ' was upheld," no mat- 
ter how " sincere in their affection for the good of the plan- 
tation," away with them ! " Should the hierarchy intrude 
on the forests of Massachusetts with the ceremonies which 
their consciences scrupled ? Should the success of the colony 
be endangered by a breach of its unity, and the authority 
of its government overthrown by the confusion of an ever- 
recurring conflict ? They deemed the co-existence of their 
liberty and of prelacy impossible," and it should not obtrude 
itself into the inheritance of the Lord's people. No argu- 
ment could avail. " The supporters of the liturgy were re- 
buked as separatists ; their plea was reproved as sedition, 
their worship forbidden as a mutiny : and the Brownes were 
sent back to England as men ' factious and evil-conditioned,' 
who could not be suffered to remain within the 1 units of the 
grant, because they would not be conformable to its govern- 
ment. Thus was Episcopacy professed in Massachusetts, and 
thus was it exiled." * 

Roger Williams was astounded both by the development 
of intolerance he found in the colony, and at the continued 

* Bancroft, i. 349, 350. 



COLOJSnZATION AJSTD LIBERTY IX MASSACHUSETTS. 119 

nominal connection of the colonists with the English Church. 
" On landing at Boston, he found himself unable to join its 
church. He had separated from the Establishment in Eng- 
land, which wronged conscience by disregarding its scruples : 
they were an ' unseparated people,' who refused to renounce 
communion with their persecutors. He would not suffer the 
magistrate to assume jurisdiction over the soul by punishing 
what was no more than a breach of the first table, an error 
of conscience or belief They were willing to put the whole 
Decalogue under the guardianship of the civil authority. The 
thought of employing him as a minister was therefore aban- 
doned ; and the Church of Boston was, in Wilson's absence, 
commended to ' the exercise of prophecy.' " He would soon 
become a pilgrim in the midst of pilgrims, an exile from the 
land of his adoption ; for he had the temerity to assert that 
" no one should be bound to worship, or to maintain a wor- 
ship, against his own consent." " The civil magistrate may 
not intermeddle even to stop a church from apostasy and 
heresy : his power extends only to the bodies and goods 
and outward estate of men." To the minds of the Puritans, 
these were monstrous heresies. There could be no room for 
such a man in Massachusetts. He must go away, or be 
punished till he will submit. 

The Antinomians, fresh from the school of Genevan the- 
ology, and determined to carry out the system of Calvin to 
what they deemed its extreme logical results, must obtrude 
their heretical notions upon " the Lord's heritage," and accuse 
even the Puritans of being " priest-ridden magistrates," " un- 
der a covenant of works." They had been emancipated from 
the bondage of the law. The Holy Spirit lived in and con- 
trolled them, and his teachings were superior " to the minis- 
try of the Word," Anne Hutchinson, a woman of ability 
" and profitable and sober carriage," was their leader. " John 
Wheelright, a silenced minister," and " Henry Vane, the gov- 
ernor of the colony," sustained her. Indeed, the orthodox 
faith and the State religion were in peril ; for " scholars, and 



120 THE GEE AT REPUBLIC. 

members of the magistracy, and the General Court, adopted 
her opinions." What was the remedy ? Not argument, not 
the advancing light of reason and the skilful interpretation 
of the word of God. It was too early for this. The law 
must exclude such persons from the jurisdiction of the colony. 
The ministers insisted, and the civil magistrates exiled Wheel- 
right, Anne Hutchinson, and Aspinwall from the territory 
of Massachusetts, as " unfit for the society of its citizens." 
" The rock on which the State rested was relia-ion. A com- 
mon faith had gathered and still bound the people together. 
They were exclusive ; for they had come to the outside of 
the world for the privilege of living by themselves. Fugi- 
tives from persecution, they shrank from contradiction as 
from the approach of peril. And why should they open their 
asylum to their oppressors ? Keligious union was made the 
bulwark of the exiles against expected attacks from the 
hierarchy of England. The wide continent of America in- 
vited colonization : they claimed their own narrow domains 
for the brethren. Their religion was their life : they wel- 
comed none but its adherents; they could not tolerate the 
scoffer, the infidel, or the dissenter ; and the whole people 
met together in their congregations. Such was the system, 
cherished as the stronghold of their freedom and happi- 
ness."* It is unnecessary to extend the history. The 
Quakers and the Roman Catholics, the witches and the 
infidels, shared the same fate ; a few even suffering the 
death-penalty for heretical contumacy. True religious free- 
dom must bide its time in Massachusetts. 

* Bancroft, i. 368. 



CHAPTER IX. 
THE NORTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. 

As we found Virginia the representative colony of the 
Southern, so we find Massachusetts the representative of the 
Northern group. In discussing the principles which controlled 
the formation of Puritanic institutions in this colony, I have, 
to a larcre extent, described those of all New Eny-land and 
the Middle States. Marked divergences will appear in de- 
tail; but in the grand fundamental position, that true religion 
is the life and organizing force of liberty, they all agree. 
Christian regeneration, freeing the soul of the individual 
from the bonda<i;e of sin, becomes the oriu^in of cravini>'s for 
outward freedom. Persecution in some form becomes the 
occasion for asserting^ these sacred ricrhts ; and the hii»;h con- 
trol of Providence converts the Puritan into the Pilgrim, and 
the Pilgrrim into the founder of a State. 

MAINE. 

The district of Maine, which had been colonized by the 
French, and entered by Pring and Waymouth and Arg.all, 
was temporarily colonized by the English in 1G07. Popham, 
the Chief Justice of England, and Gorge-^, the Governor of 
Plymouth, were the movers and patrons of the first expedi- 
tion to this country. On the 8th of August, our adven- 
turers reached " America, near the mouth of the Kennebec, 
and, offering public thanks to God for their safety, began 
their settlement under the auspices of religion, with a gov- 



122 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

ernment framed as if for a permanent colony ; " but the colo- 
nists were not of the right stamp, and after a severe winter 
and many misfortunes, leaving the dead body of their presi- 
dent, George Popham, as if in charge of the right of soil, 
they returned to Enghmd, and " did coyne many excuses " 
for their failure. 

This hardy territory, which had been included in the 
enormous grant made to the enterprishig Capt. Smith and his 
companions in 1620, and became a portion of New England to 
be ruled absolutely by the Plymouth Company, was granted 
in part to the Pilgrims in 1G23. A patent was conceded 
to Gorges and Mason; and their far-famed "Laconia" includ- 
ed the whole country between the sea, the St. Lawrence, the 
Merrimack, and the Kennebec ; " and, under the auspices of a 
company of merchants, permanent settlements were formed 
on the banks of the Piscataqua." 

But the bioroted and indomitable Goro-es was not satisfied. 
Three years later, he set himself thoroughly at work to coun- 
teract the Roman Catholics and the French monarch in their 
determined purpose to claim the eastern coast of North 
America. His effort, however, resulted in the grand fiiilure 
of Sir William Alexander and his timid Scotch settlers, with 
his splendid paper order of nobility, and a war with New 
France, in which the English gained a barren victor}^ and 
received the surrender of the starved garrison of Quebec ; 
but, under the genius of Richelieu, tlie}^ were compelled 
to surrender all their conquests, and the French extended 
their boundary down into the district of Maine as far as the 
Penobscot. 

To encourage agriculture, " a district of forty miles square, 
named Lygonia, and stretching from Huntswell to the Ken- 
iiebunk, was set apart for the first colony of farmers ; " but 
the emigrants were ridiculed and discouraged by the more 
successful patrons of the forest and the sea. 

The persistent Gorges, however, was not to be disco ur- 
a^-ed. lie obtained a right to the whole territory between 



THE NOETHERX GROUP COMPLETED. 123 

the Kennebec and New Hampshire. He accepted the ap- 
pointment of Governor-General of New England, that he 
might set forward the enterprise ; but Providence, much to 
the satisfaction of Massachusetts, defeated his plans. 

Maine is small in 1636 ; but she has succeeded in the or- 
ganization of a court at Saco, and will struggle on against 
wind and tide nntil she falls into the arms of Massachusetts. 
It is vain to contend against destiny. Gorges is dead. Piscat- 
aqua, Gorgeana, and Wells could, "by unanimous consent, 
form themselves into a body politic ; " but they were too weak 
for so formidable an undertaking. Massachusetts stretched 
her old convenient grant over the territory ; and in May, 
1652, Maine lost her '• independence," very much to the com- 
fort, it would seem, of those who preferred stability and 
strength to struggle and mere form. Let us rejoice that the 
privileges of the English Church in the district were not to 
be interfered with. 

In May, 1677, when Charles II. had succeeded the Pro- 
tectorate, and the Indian war was raging, Massachusetts is 
relieved of Maine by royal orders. The king does not like 
to have these Puritans cover too much ground. They may 
become impertinent and troublesome some day. He, more- 
over, wants the territory for Monmouth, his reputed son. 
Of course, the king could do as he liked ; but Yankee shrewd- 
ness came to the help of the great colony. Her represen- 
tative men ascertained the rightful owners of the grant to 
Gorges, and quietly bought out " the State of JMaine " for 
some six thousand dollars. Massachusetts found both the 
French and the Duke of York in her way ; but as '' pro- 
prietary " she organized the government, using " a little 
gentle force " when it was absolutely necessary. 

The religion of Maine was thus fir only partly Puritan. 
It appears not to have assumed any decided character. But 
it must be noticed, that all the attempts at colonization in 
that territory were made imder strictly worldly influences. 
It was, in truth, a most persistent attempt, upon the part of 



124 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

the great experimental Gorges, to secure a foothold in New 
England for royalty and prelacy, free from Puritan control ; 
and our readers have seen that these attempts were a most 
extraordinary succession of failures. 

We shall henceforth find Puritan zeal and energy produ- 
cing a new life in that district of Massachusetts. Let us hope 
that the Pilgrims propagated in Maine their love of liberty 
with as little as possible of their intolerance. The struggle 
between the prerogatives of the crown and the people went 
on, until, under the lead of Providence, a strong, vigorous 
Protestant State rose up to maintain the liberty of her peo- 
ple, and take her position in the Great American Republic. 

NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

From the discovery of this territory by Martin Pring, in 
1603, to its formal annexation to Massachusetts on the 14th 
of April, 1642, there was comparatively little prosperity in 
New Hampshire. 

Mason covered the territory with a patent, which pro- 
duced abundance of lawsuits. In the mean time, the inhabit- 
ants tliemselves, about Dover and Portsmouth, obtained title 
to the soil, which was decidedly favorable to progress ; and a 
small number of people, about 1631, settled on the "Straw- 
berry Bank " of the Piscataqua : but the country long re- 
mained a wilderness. In 1653, Portsmouth had only " be- 
tween fifty and sixty families." 

After a struggle with proprietaries, and various adverse 
influences, for a period of forty years, the people reached the 
conviction that an independent colony was impracticable in 
that rugged country, and hence deliberately handed them- 
selves over to the strong and prosperous colony of Massa- 
chusetts. We must with this fact remember that these set- 
tlers were not generally Puritans. They were without the 
energy and organizing power of that strange people. 

A little '• worldly wisdom" seems to have already crept in 



THE NORTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. 125 

among the Massachusetts Puritans; for they, with true pro- 
priety, conceded that their religious system could not be 
forced upon the new territory ; and an order was adopted in 
General Court, " that neither the freemen nor the deputies of 
New Hampshire were required to be church-members." 

For a long period, the fict was perfectly evident that this 
was not a Puritan " State ; " but with the liberty conceded, 
and the infusion of Puritan energy, it might be hoped that 
the future of New Hampshire would be prosperous. At least, 
our Massachusetts '' Jonathan," walking off with Maine in 
one pocket and New Hampshire in the other, was a little in 
danger of worldly pride, one would say. 

The coming of the " royal commissioners " to assert the 
prerogatives of the crown in Massachusetts, of course seri- 
ously disturbed the future State of New Hampshire ; and 
when the commissioners were, by formal proclamation, re- 
fused the right of holding a court, at the bar of which the 
colony was summoned to appear, New Hampshire was in- 
volved in the embryo rebellion ; and, some thirteen years 
later, — July 24, 1679, — her territory was arbitrarily de- 
tached from Massachusetts, and made a royal province. The 
people met in " General Assembly " to consider the matter, 
when the infusion of the Puritan element became very evi- 
dent ; and thus they wrote to Massachusetts : " We acknowl- 
edge your care for us, we thankfully acknowledge your kind- 
ness, while we dwelt under your shadow ; owning ourselves 
deeply obliged, that, on our earnest request, you took us 
under your government, and ruled us well. If there be 
opportunity for us to be anywise serviceable to you, we . 
shall show how ready we are to embrace it. Wishing the 
presence of God to be with you, we crave the benefit of 
your prayers on us, who are separated from you." 

But how will New Hampshire respond to the act of royal 
" prerogative," aiming at the utter destruction of her liber- 
ties? Let the following spirited words of the Assembly 
answer : " No act, imposition, law, or ordinance, shall be 



126 THE GllEAT REPUBLIC. 

valid, unless made by the Assembly, and approved by tlie 
people." Brave, noble words! Feeble, indeed, the colony 
was. What would be its power to cope with the formidable 
strength of the British realm ? Physically nothing, but 
morally ample : for God had moved New Hampshire up by 
the side of Massachusetts and Virginia in the great struggle 
for national freedom ; nor was she to be intimidated by 
threats or demonstrations of tyrannical power. 

Tlie irrepressible Mason was again in sight, bound to claim 
all the land by proprietary right ; but the "granite " colonial 
government was an insuperable obstacle to his grasping 
schemes. He returns to England for a redress of grievances, 
and finds Edward Canfield a suitable instrument of his sin- 
ister designs. The king was easily propitiated by " one-fifth 
part of all the quit-rents for the support of the government ; " 
and Canfield was sure of his salary, having " a mortgage 
on the whole province for twenty-one years " as security, 
and with certain prospects of " an abundant harvest of fines 
and forfeitures" as perquisites. He was in ecstasies, and was 
villain enough to boast openly of his purpose " to wrest a 
fortune from the sawyers and lumber-dealers of New Hamp- 
shire." * 

But what strange men he met when he came to take pos- 
session of his grand estates ! They did not know him ; they 
questioned his rights ; they would indeed give him '' two 
hundred and fifty pounds" (which, to tell the truth, he was 
very glad to get) ; " but they would not yield their liber- 
ties : and the governor in anger dissolved the Assembly." 
This was a new issue. .Such an assumption of power had 
been hitherto unknown in New England. " Liberty and ref- 
ormation " bei^an to rino; out from the excited but inconsid- 
erate multitude. This was treason ag-ainst the kinsr ; and 
poor " Edward Gove, an unlettered enthusiast," must suffer 
for it three years " in the Tower of London." 

Meanwhile Canfield began to look after his perquisites. 

* Bancroft, ii. 116, 117. 



THE NORTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. 127 

Taxes and arbitrary fees, violent arrests, imprisonments, and 
false reports of invasions, only made the " granite " men more 
obstinate than ever. 

The ministers, Canfield thought, having something of the 
Puritan rebel in them, were exciting the people to re- 
sist; and they must be suppressed. Moody, of Portsmouth, 
" replied to his threats by a sermon, and the Church was in- 
flexible." He would now assert the jurisdiction of the Church 
of England, and command festivals and feasts, and the Lord's 
Supper, free to the people indiscriminately, and the use of 
" the English Liturgy ; " but the ministers and the people said 
« No ! " " The governor himself appointed a day on which 
he claimed to receive the elements at the hands of Mood}', 
after the forms of the Church of England ; " but the stern old 
Puritan saw nothing honorable or right against godly sim- 
plicity. He could submit to be "prosecuted, condemned, 
and imprisoned ; " but no living man could compel him to be 
subject to carnal ordinances. Canfield sent word to Eng- 
land, " that, while the clergy were allowed to preach, no true 
allegiance could be found : " " there could be no quiet till the 
factious preachers were turned out of the province." The 
king must certainly send round " a ship of war;" for, " with- 
out some visible force to keep the people of New Hampshire 
under, it would be a difficult or impossible thing to execute 
his Majesty's commands or the law of trade." 
' But the people are not frightened. They are even 
violent. The men have " clubs," and the wives " hot water," 
for the sheriff and his officers, when they come to enforce 
the governor's unlawful exactions. 

Canfield at last was in as complete despair as Sancho 
Panza when he came into possession of " that same island." 
He was "governor," no doubt; but he could only see the 
sumptuous viands which his appetite craved, and he was 
thoroughly sick of his government. In despair, he wrote 
imploringly to the government in England, " I shall esteem 
it the greatest happiness in the world to be allowed to re- 



128 THE GEE AT REPUBLIC. 

move from this unreasonable people. They cavil at the 
royal commission, and not at my presence. No one will be 
accepted by them who puts the king's commands in exe- 
cution." 

We have traced these developments of liberty, under the 
promptings of religion, far enough to perceive their perfect 
identity with the spirit which colonized New England, and 
would ultimately constitute the Great American Republic. 

CONNECTICUT. 

We trace the settlement of this country from about the 
8th of October, 1G35, when people from the neighborhood of 
Boston came to found Hartford and Windsor and Wethers- 
field. Sixty Pilgrims, including women and children, started 
to travel with their stock and effects through the forests to 
the Valley of the Connecticut. They were bound for " the 
Far West," in the almost unknown wilds of Connecticut; 
and through the perils of a hard winter, the people living 
on the milk of the browsing kine, journeyed to the home of 
their future independence. Their numbers had diminished, 
and " the army of the Lord " was very much sifted by the 
way ; but enough were left in the spring, and of the right 
kind, to organize a good, strong, free, civil government. 
Other Pilgrims found their way to " the new Hesperia of 
Puritanism ; " but the grand colony of about a hundred trav- 
elled on foot, through the pathless forests of Massachusetts, 
to '• the delightfid banks " of the Connecticut. They were 
superior people. John Ilaynes, formerl}^ Governor of Mas- 
sachusetts, and the unrivalled Hooker, were the great and 
true representatives of State and Church ; and many were 
from the wealthy and more intelligent families. 

Now the new colony is surrounded with perils. The Pe- 
quods are hostile, and are about to succeed in forming most 
formidable combinations for the extermination of these white 
intruders. But the heroic exile, Roger Williams, with un- 



THE NOETHERlSr GROUP COMPLETED. 129 

exampled bravery, penetrates their wilds ; presents himself 
meekly, but fearlessly, in the midst of their council of war ; 
and, by the help of God, dissolves the grand conspiracy. 
The Pequods, however, are desperate, and determined to pro- 
voke war. " To John Mason, the staff of command was de- 
livered at Hartford by the venerated Hooker ; and after 
nearly a whole night, spent, at the request of the soldiers, in 
importunate prayer by the very learned and godly Stone, 
about sixty men, one-third of the whole colony, aided by John 
Underbill and twenty gallant recruits, whom the forethought 
of Vane had sent from the Bay State, sailed past the 
Thames." This Christian army would keep the holy sabbath 
on the way, and would open an honorable parley with the 
savages before firing a gun ; but there was no alternative. 
They must fight and conquer, or their wives and children 
would fall the bleeding victims of savage ferocity. 

The war is begun, and by bullets and swords, and raging 
flames, against bows and arrows : it is a war of extermination. 
How terrible the necessity ! How sad the record of history ! 

Peace has come ; and now these thinking, worshipping 
pioneers proceed to construct a government. Its grand funda- 
mental provisions are very few and simple ; but centuries of 
advancing civilization will hardly be able to improve them. 
A free, equal, representative government, a republic of jus- 
tice, are the few words which express the whole. 

One such independent sovereignty, it would seem, ought 
to be enough for " the State of Connecticut." But the peo- 
ple will be their own judges. In 1638, we see another Pu- 
ritan colony rising up at New Haven " under the guidance 
of John Davenport as its pastor, and of the excellent The- 
ophilus Eaton, who was annually elected its governor for 
twenty years, till his death." 

Here was " austere, unmixed Calvinism ; -but the spirit of 
humanity had sheltered itself under the rough exterior." 
" Under a branching oak," while it was yet cold, the people 
gathered, and listened to the solemn words of Davenport. 



130 THE GREAT REPUBLIC, 

They had been, " like the Son of man, led into the wilder- 
ness to be tempted." After a day of fasting and prayer, 
the}^ rested their first form of government on a simple plan- 
tation-covenant, — that " all of them would be ordered by 
the rules which the Scriptures held forth to them." 

They would recognize the rights of the Indians, and ob- 
tain fairly a title to their lands. 

In another year, assembled in a barn, they sought to per- 
fect their organization ; and, by the influence of Davenport, 
it was solemnly resolved that the Scriptures are the perfect 
rule of a commonwealth ; that the purity and peace of the 
ordinances to themselves and their posterity were the great 
end of civil order ; and that church-members only should be 
free burgesses." " Eaton, Davenport, and five others, were 
the ^ seven pillars ' for the New Haven of wisdom in the 
wilderness." Other towns, as they arose, followed their unique 
example ; and the Bible became the grand statute-book of 
New Haven, and the elect were its freemen. 

This is Connecticut, substantially, for the whole period 
of preparation now under consideration. They will increase 
in numbers and wisdom ; but they are " gospellers and psalm- 
singers" to the end of the world, and all over creation. 

We deplore the narrowness which moved these stern 
primitive legislators to limit the right of franchise to mem- 
bers of the church ; but we bear to them profound respect 
for their loyal devotion to the grand truths of revelation, 
and their sincere homage to the " Lord of lords, and King 
of kings." In this they caught the true American thought 
and principle, in the neglect of which, we, as a nation, have 
suffered the most severe and well-deserved chastisements. 



RHODE ISLAND. 

The history of this State can never be separated from the 
character, opinions,..and enterprise of Roger Williams. 

We have already seen, that, when he entered Massachu- 



THE NORTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. 131 

setts, he was in advance of the general sentiment of the Pu- 
ritans on the question of rehgious liberty. On the one hand, 
he would not consent to even a nominal connection with 
Prelacy : that he had calmly and deliberately renounced 
forever. On the other hand, he rose to the clearest concep- 
tion of religious freedom known among men. However 
wrong the Church might be, it was not the right of any man 
nor any government forcibly to correct ^e wrong, even to 
save the Church from the most destructive heresy. Though 
it was the highest, noblest right for every man to consecrate 
himself to the service of God, no man, no number of men, 
had the right to compel him to this service. Eoger Williams 
was more than a Puritan. He was the great mind ordained 
of Providence to advance beyond the position of indignant 
protest against oppression, to the revelation that the highest 
right must itself be the result of a freedom which might be 
abused by consenting to the deepest wrong. He was the 
first true type of the American freeman, conceding fully to 
all others the high-born rights which he claimed for himself 
This was farther than Puritanism could lead the race ; and, for 
the present, it was not ready to follow. 

Roger Williams could not join the Church in Boston. It 
was vain to attempt to make him pastor of Salem. He 
could try it once and again ; but the spirit of the place 
and the standard of the people cramped him. He was too 
bold and outspoken against the intolerance of his brethren 
to stay there. Nor did God intend that he should remain 
in Plymouth. He must be thrust out to lead the nation 
on toward the goal of their providential future. 

He was a very troublesome man for bigotry to manage. 
He was too good, apparently, to be persecuted ; too strong in 
his logical position and defence to be put down by argu- 
ment. " An unbelieving soul," he said, " is dead in sin." To 
force him from one kind of worship to another " was like 
shifting a dead man into several changes of apparel." " No 
one should be bound to worship, or to maintain a worship, 



132 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

against his own consent." No man ought to be disfranchised 
because he was not a member of the Church. "The re- 
moval of the yoke of soul oppression, as it will prove an act 
of mercy and righteousness to the enslaved nations, so it is 
of binding force to engage the whole, and every interest 
and conscience to preserve the common liberty and peace." 

He denied the right to coerce a man to take the freeman's 
oath ; but would not he himself be compelled to take it ? 
No ; he refused : and such was the firm dignity of his bear- 
ing, " that the government was forced to desist from that 
proceeding." 

But he was living under a religion established by law, — 
not Prelacy, but Puritanism, in which intolerance was just as 
vile to him, and just as determined against a nonconformist. 
" The ministers got together, and declared any one worthy 
of banishment who should obstinately assert that ' the civil 
magistrate might not intermeddle, even to stop a church 
from apostasy and heresy.' " He was under the ban of the 
Church ; but the people would have him for a " teacher." 
They were punished by the loss of lands ; and he would 
unite with them in "letters of admonition unto all the 
churches whereof any of the magistrates were members, 
that they might admonish the magistrates of their injustice." 
This was treason, and the storm coming on was too severe 
for his church. They forsook him, and even his wife turned 
against him. He will promptly assert his right of with- 
drawal. Hear him : " My own voluntary withdrawing from 
all these churches, resolved to continue in persecuting the 
witnesses of the Lord, presenting light unto them, I confess 
it was mine own voluntary act ; yea, I hope the act of the 
Lord Jesus, sounding forth in me the blast, which shall, in his 
own holy season, cast down the strength and confidence of 
those inventions of men." 

When arraigned before the civil magistrates, he " main- 
tained the rocky strength of his ground ; ready to be bound 
and banished, and even to die in New England," rather than 
be untrue to his honest convictions. 



THE NORTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. 133 

"At a time when Germany was the battle-field for all 
Europe in the implacable wars of religion, when even Hol- 
land was bleeding with the anger of vengeful factions, when 
France was still to go through the fearful struggle with big- 
otry, when England was gasping under the despotism of 
intolerance, almost half a century before WiUiam Penn 
became an American proprietary, and two years before 
Descartes founded modern philosophy on the method of 
free reflection, Roger Williams asserted the great doctrine 
of intellectual liberty. It became his glory to found a State 
upon that principle, and to stamp himself upon its rising 
institutions in characters so deep, that the impress has 
remained to the present day, and can never be erased with- 
out the total destruction of the work." * " He was," contin- 
ues Bancroft in one of his most eloquent passages, "the 
first person in modern Christendom to assert in its plenitude 
the doctrine of the liberty of conscience, the equality of opin- 
ions before the law ; and, in its defence, he was the harbinger 
of Milton, the precursor and the superior of Jeremy Taylor." 

But before the bar of " civil liberty " in Massachusetts his 
doom was sealed. The stern urgency of Cotton seems to 
have been almost necessary to prevent, even then, a revolt 
from prescriptive bigotry. But the act was recorded. The 
immortal Williams was an exile ; but, in the struggle, so 
much light had forced itself into the surrounding darkness, 
that an apologetic tone was assumed in explaining and vin- 
dicating the decree. It was necessary to preserve inviolate 
the "oaths for making trial of the fidelity of the people," 
and to avert a movement which seemed likely " to subvert 
the fundamental state and governme'nt of the people." 

It was not absolutely insisted that he should go out among 
the savages in the severity of the winter. He might remain 
till spring; but even this was not without danger to the 
stability of Puritan freedom. There were many in Salem 
who loved Roger Williams, and who hung upon his lips 

* Bancroft, i. 375. 



134 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

with intense delight. " The people were much taken with 
the apprehension of his godliness." 

The fear of his contagious opinions determined the gov- 
ernment to end the matter in a summary way. He was 
condemned to sail immediately for England. But once more, 
as God willed, he would disobey. In the midst of winter he 
went out, not knowing whither he went ; and, " for fourteen 
weeks, he was sorely tossed in a bitter season, not knowing 
what bread or bed did mean." 

But God had made him friends among the savages. He 
had, some time before, risked his rights as a citizen to affirm 
in a pamphlet that they were not to be forcibly dispossessed 
of their lands, but were to be bargained with for their homes, 
like white men. He had gone out into their wigwams and 
hunting-grounds to preach to them Jesus and the resurrec- 
tion; and his deep sympathy and holy sacrifice in their 
behalf had awakened in these savage bosoms the most 
ardent gratitude and affection. Exiled from Massachusetts, 
"he was welcomed by Massasoit; " and " the barbarous heart 
of Canonicus, the chief of the Narragansetts, loved him as 
his son to the last gasp." " The ravens," he said, " fed me in 
the wilderness." It was thus that the grand pioneer of 
freedom was disciplined for his task. 

In June of 1636, we find this prince of exiles, with 
only five companions, landing from a frail Indian canoe, in 
a wilderness, outside of any patent claims of civilized men, 
and very thankful, he said, "that ever-honored Gov. Win- 
throp wrote to me to steer my course to the Narragansett 
Bay, encouraging me from the freeness of the place from 
English claims or patetits. I took this prudent motion as 
a voice from God." 

The spot on which these Pilgrims from " the land of Pil- 
grims " first placed their feet is marked, by tradition, as sa- 
cred to liberty. Williams named it Providence ; and so it is 
to this day, the beautiful and capital city of the State found- 
ed by his enlightened philanthropy. " I desired," said he. 



THE NOETHEEN GEOUP COMPLETED. 135 

" it might be for a shelter for persons distressed for con- 
science." Noble monumental record of a noble man ! 

Now, for a time, he cannot study much. He has no slaves, 
like Virginians, to fell the trees, and raise him bread. He 
has no great colony, like Cotton or Davenport, to see that he 
is supported from government tithes. " My time," he writes, 
" was not spent altogether in spiritual labors ; but day and 
night, at home and abroad, on the land and water, at the 
hoe, at the oar, for bread." 

His title to the soil of his colony came legitimately, and bj 
fair stipulation, from the Narragansetts, and bore the signa- 
tures of the Indian princes, Canonicus and Miantonomoh. It 
is a large, splendid territory, he thought, as he looked out 
upon his domain of freedom, and said it is " my own as truly 
as any man's coat upon his back." But he would be no 
grand monopolist of the gifts ofi God ; indeed, he " reserved 
to himself not one foot of land, not one tittle of political 
power, more than he granted to servants and strangers." 
The government he founded was to be "a pure democ- 
racy," controlled by the will of a majority; but this should 
be " only in civil things," and over all was the sovereignty 
of God. 

In 1643, Williams goes to England to settle the relations 
of his colony with " the mother-country." The colonies were 
under control of Warwick, with a council of five peers and 
twelve commons. Fortunately for Rhode Island, that noble 
philanthropist, Henry Vane, was of the latter. Parliament 
was surprised and deeply interested by the "printed Indian 
labors of Roger Williams, the like whereof was not extant 
from any part of America." The favorable impression made 
by the great missionary led " both houses of Parliament to 
grant unto him, and friends with him, a free and absolute 
charter of civil government for those parts of his abode." 
Thus the oppressed of all lands would, it seemed, be guar- 
anteed a home for " soul-liberty, with full power and author- 
ity to rule themselves." 



136 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

Eoger Williams returned from England under " the Pro- 
tectorate," free to pass unharmed through the land of his ban- 
ishment ; to be met on the waters of his own Narragansett by 
a fleet of boats bearing the freemen of his colony, who with 
gratitude, and shouts of welcome, hailed him as the founder 
and defender of their liberties, so that he was really " ele- 
vated and transported out of himself." Let oppressed, per- 
secuted Virtue learn to dare and to wait. The time of her 
triumph will surely come. 

But how will this grand little " democracie " succeed in 
its wUd experiment ? There are " hardiness and tumults," we 
learn, at its " assemblies," called together " by the drum or 
the voice of a herald," under a tree, or by the sea-side. No 
wonder ; for here were " Anabaptists and Antinomians, fana- 
tics and infidels ; " unpromising materials, one would say, out 
of which to construct a self-governing State. But one pure, 
clear, lofty mind will guide the whole. They will have good 
men for officers, and may safely put on to their records, 
"Ouer popularitie shall not, as some conjecture it will, prove 
an anarchic, and so a common tirannie ; for we are exceed- 
ing desirous to preserve every man safe in his person, name, 
and estate." 

There was still danger. Coddington had obtained from 
the executive council of State in England " a commission 
for governing the islands ; " and Williams must go to Eng- 
land again to preserve the integrity of his prospective State. 
He succeeded, and the gratitude of the people would have 
made him governor ; but he was wiser than they. He refused 
all honors, but gave a true account of the valuable efforts 
of Sir Henry Vane in their behalf Their letter to him 
sums up the history of the early colonization of Rhode Is- 
land, and will complete the presentation of those features of 
its history most important to our discussion. On the 27th 
of August, 1654, they wrote, " From the first beginning of 
the Providence Colony, you have been a noble and true friend 
to an outcast and despised people : we have ever reaped the 



THE NORTHEEN GROUP COMPLETED. 137 

sweet fruits of your constant loving-kindness and favor. 
We have long been free from the iron yoke of wolfish bish- 
ops ; we have sitten dry from the streams of blood spilt by 
the wars in our native country ; we have not felt the new 
chains of the Presbyterian tyrants, nor, in this colony, have 
we been consumed by the over-zealous fire of the (so-called) 
godly Christian magistrates ; we have not known what an 
excise means ; we have almost forgotten Avhat tithes are ; 
we have long drank of the cup of as great liberties as any 
people that we can hear of under the whole heaven : when 
we are gone, our posterity and children after us shall read 
in our town-record your loving-kindness to us, and our real 
endeavor after peace and righteousness." 

Roger Williams is a Christian and a minister, and he will 
found a church. He is a Baptist, and his church will be ex- 
clusive immersionists ; but he will rise above precedents, and 
take no pains to establish the line of succession. He and 
his simple-minded people will baptize each other, and go on 
to serve the Lord, and proclaim the doctrine of justification 
by fiiith with might and main, and God will be with them. 
His denomination will feel obliged to restrict " communion " 
to those baptized as they understand it, and will accept the 
decrees as they understand them ; but the complete and 
stringent accountability of every man will be the ground 
of their practical appeals in all lands, and of their battle-cry 
of freedom to the end of the world. 

As the central power of the Southern group removed 
from Virginia to South Carolina, where she arose as the 
only original and most intensely slave State, so the centre 
of the Northern group removed from Massachusetts to 
Rhode Island, where Roger Williams, her noblest representa- 
tive of freedom, exiled from her territory for his brave pro- 
test aij-ainst intolerance, unfurled the banner of unrestricted 
liberty on the banks of the Narragansett. 

Every step of this advance movement in the clear asser- 
tion of the great American idea was made under the direc- 

18 



138 THE GREAT REPtTBLIC. 

tion of a high-souled, Christian minister, and indicates the 
di\jine control in the development and organization of free- 
dom on the Western continent. 

The colonial history of Vermont is included in that of 
New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New York, and evolves 
no additional principle for consideration in this part of our 
work. 

New England, from the period of colonization, will go on 
with the development of her peculiar institutions under ex- 
treme difficulties. Her battles with prerogatives will pass 
her through the severest ordeals of suppression and tyranny, 
and lead to the union of her colonies, the development of 
her States, and her final incorporation into the grand union 
of freedom. 

NEW YORK. 

On the fourth day of September, 1609, just as Champlain 
was entering the future State of New York from the north, 
the gallant Henry Hudson rounded Sandy Hook, and " The 
Half-moon " cast anchor. He had sailed in search of " the 
noRh-west passage " to Asia, under direction of the famous 
East-India Company ; and ended a long, perilous voyage in 
the discovery of the Hudson River. 

This gave New York, with boundaries entirely undefined, 
to the Dutch by right of discovery. In 1610, Providence 
inspired the English with a wholesome dread of the " art 
and industry of the Dutch," and thus defeated a proposed 
alliance with the East-India Company for the joint coloni- 
zation of Virginia, which would have probably destroyed 
English independence in America. 

After long and characteristic hesitation, the States-Gen- 
eral gave authority to private adventurers to make " four 
successive voyages to any passage, haven, or country they 
should thereafter find ;" and in 1614 a fleet of " five small 
vessels " sailed for America, bearino; as commanders the fa- 
mous Ilcndrick Christaenson of Cleve, and " the worthj^ 



THE NOETHERN GROUP COMPLETED. 139 

Adriaen Block." Shipwreck did not destroy the courage, nor 
defeat the objects, of these daring navigators. Their dis- 
coveries on the northern coast of America resulted in a 
grant to the explorers from the assembly of the States- 
General of " a three-years' monopoly of trade with the ter- 
ritory between Virginia and France, from forty to forty-five 
degrees of latitude." Their charter, given on the 11th of 
October, 1614, named the extensive regions New Nether- 
lands. John Smith had that same year called the northern 
part Ntiw England.* 

This provided for a conflict of jurisdiction between Eng- 
land and Holland, and the latter seemed at that time much 
more likely to succeed than the former. This was an era of 
great ambition and boundless prospects upon the part of the 
United Provinces, now glorying in their freedom after a long 
and desperate struggle to achieve it. We almost tremble to 
see how likely the colonists of the Anglo-Saxon race were 
soon to be crowded off from the continent by the grasping 
power of France, Holland, and Spain. But the plans of God 
would not permit it. These hardy adventurers were here, 
not to establish a permanently Dutch province, but to act 
an important part in founding several strong States of the 
Republic of freedom. After various conflicts with New Eng- 
land and the agents of Lord Baltimore, conquering New 
Sweden, and bringing into striking contrast the right of 
free toleration and the institution of slavery, the govern- 
ment of Holland was finally superseded by that of England. 
" New Amsterdam " soon disappeared from the map of Amer- 
ica; and early in October, 1664, "for the first time, the 
whole Atlantic coast of the old thirteen States was in posses- 
sion of England." f 

The spirited little Republic had grappled heroically with 
the combined powers of France and England for the rights 
of free navigation, not for herself alone, but for the world ; 
and by the noble patriotism of William of Orange, the 

* Bancroft, ii. 275, 276. t Ibid., ii. 315. 



140 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

bravery and genius of De Ruyter and Tromp, and the power- 
ful pen of Grotius, she had gained the grandest triumph of 
the age, — the " rights of neutral flags " upon the high seas. 
She had recovered her own European territory ; but as a 
nation she appears no more in our history, except as an ally 
and friend of the Republic of American liberty. 

We must not, however, fail to mark the providence which 
made a free Protestant republic " the mother of four of our 
States," and gave to our country the cool, strong blood of 
the Hollander to mingle with that of the fiery Celt, the pro- 
gressive Anglo-Saxon, the sturdy German, and the polished 
French, to produce the purest, noblest type of the new Amer- 
ican race. We may hence also trace to a common origin the 
great Reformation, the love of civil freedom, which became 
alike ineradicable in New York and New England. 

The settlement of the Empire State will henceforth go on 
in the ordinary way amid stirring rivalries and fierce antago- 
nisms ; but her struggles will be those of the rising nation, 
and the spirit of the people will be grandly expressed in 
1691 by the haughty accusation of a royal governor, "There 
are none of you but what are big with the privileges of 
Englishmen and Magna Cliarta." 

NEW JERSEY. 

In the spring of 16G4, the Duke of York " assigned to 
Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, both proprietaries 
of Carolina, the land between the Hudson and the Dela- 
ware. In honor of Carteret, the territory, with nearly the 
same bounds as at present, except on the north, received 
the name of New Jersey." * 

Moved by avarice to encourage population, these "lords 
of the soil " made liberal concessions to the people. They 
promised " security of persons and property under laws to 
be made by an assembly composed of che governor and 

* Bancroft, ii. 315. 



THE NORTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. 142 

council, and at least an equal number of representatives of 
the people ; freedom from taxation, except by the colonial 
assembly; a combined opposition of the people and the 
proprietaries to any arbitrary impositions from England; 
freedom of judgment, conscience, and worship to every 
peaceful citizen. " * Thus early did scheming, selfish men 
come to be aware, that, to achieve success with Americans, 
they must at least make profession of respect for American 
ideas. 

. Swedish farmers soon appeared here and there in New 
Jersey; Dutch families might have been found about Bur- 
lington; and, in 1618, traders took up a position, which be- 
came a permanent settlement, on Bergen Heights. In 1664, 
the Quakers found a quiet retreat " south of Raritan Bay : " 
and the New-England Puritans contrived to get a claim for 
a home on the Raritan ; but they could not mix up with the 
ungodly. They must have their own jurisprudence. They 
would treat honorably with the Indians for their lands ; and, 
" with one heart, they resolved to carry on their spiritual and 
town affairs according to godly government." Lil^e them- 
selves, ever on the alert, when in May, 1668, the first 
"colonial legislative assembly convened at Elizabethtown, 
they were there to transfer the chief features of the New- 
England codes to the statute-book of New Jersey." f 

It was but a slight matter for these brave, plain people 
to dash aside the claims set up by Maryland to the land 
they had received by double right through the Duke of 
York and the natives of the soil. Just as easy was it 
to repudiate the demands of Berkeley and Carteret for 
quitrrents upon their farms. It was a mere trifle, — only 
a half-penny an acre ; but it was the right which they 
questioned. The mere intimation of a purpose to enforce 
this unlawful exaction cost Carteret his office, and sent him 
to England for a redress of grievances. 

West New Jersey was purchased by the Quakers of the 

* Bancroft, ii. 316. t Ibid., ii. 318. 



142 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

aged Berkeley in 1674 ; and to this wilderness they came for 
rest, guided, as they believed, by the light within. And 
what form of government will they adopt ? 

The Friends in England, sustaining the relation of proprie- 
taries for honest convenience, not to "lord it over God's her- 
itage," received the views of the feeble colonists, and said, 
" The CONCESSIONS are such as Friends approve of We lay a 
foundation for after-ages to understand their liberty as Chris- 
tians and as men, that they may not be brought into bond- 
age but by their own consent ; for we put the power in th^ 
PEOPLE."' And all the rights recognized by a pure democracy 
are defined and guarded in their fundamental laws adopted 
on the third day of March, 1677 : "All and every person in 
the province shall, by the hel^) of the Lord and these funda- 
mentals, be free from oppression and slavery." 

How lovingly the savages responded to the gentle jus- 
tice of these Friends ! " You are our brothers," they said ; 
" apd we will live like brothers with you. We Avill have a 
wide path for you and us to walk in. If an Englishman 
falls asleep in this path, the Indian shall pass him by, and 
say, 'He is an Englishman; he is asleep; let him alone.' 
The path shall be plain : there shall not be in it a stump 
to hurt the feet." 

The principal settlements of New Jersey were begun. 
They would go on and prosper, and others would be added, 
until the population was sufficient for a State. The partition 
was at length broken down, and New Jersey was numbered 
with " the old thirteen." 

PENNSYLVANIA. 

William Penn was a thorough Quaker. He had been the 
counsellor of the Friends in New Jersey, and seen them 
multiplied and prosperous. He purchased East New Jersey 
from the heirs of Carteret ; but he desired to obtain a grant 
on the west side of the Delaware for the enlargement of 
the domain of peace. After much skilful management and 



THE NORTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. 143 

''great opposition," he finally obtained a charter from 
Charles II. in 1680; and thus he writes March 5, 1681: 
"After many writings, watchings, solicitings, and disputes 
in council, my country was confirmed to me under the great 
seal of England. God will bless it, and make it the seed 
of a nation. I shall have a tender care of the government, 
that it be well laid at first." 

He was now the sole proprietor of a vast and fertile terri- 
tory, including " three degrees of latitude by five degrees of 
longitude west from the Delaware," — enough for a kingdom ; 
and, two months after he received his charter, he writes to 
the scattered settlers the following letter : " My friends, I 
wish you all happiness here and hereafter. These are to 
lett you know that it hath pleased God in his Providence 
to cast you within my Lott and Care. It is a business, that 
though I never undertook before, yet God has given me an 
understanding of my duty and an honest minde to doe it 
uprightly. I hope you will not be troubled at your change 
and the king's choice ; for you are now fixt, at the mercy 
of no governour that comes to make his fortune great. 
You shall be governed by laws of your own making, and 
live a free, and, if you will, a sober and industrious people. 
I shall not usurp the right of any, or oppress his person. 
God has furnisht me with a better resolution, and has given 
me his grace to keep it. In short, whatever sober and free 
men can reasonably desire for the security and improve- 
ment of their own happiness, I shall heartily comply with. 
I beseech God to direct you in the way of righteousness, 
and therein prosper you, and your children after you. I am 
your true friend." Happy, indeed, were these Pennsylvania 
Quakers to be under the government of a man so thorough- 
ly honest and paternal. Impartial history must, in spite of 
all criticism, award to him the credit of fully redeeming 
these liberal pledges. 

With but a small fortune, quite reduced by expensive 
lawsuits in defence of his persecuted brethren, Penn had 



144 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

now an opportunity of ample remuneration for all his sacri- 
fices and toil, by " the sale of domains." For a monopoly 
of the Indian trade, he was offered " six thousand pounds 
and an annual revenue." Will he yield to the temptation ? 
Hear him : " I will not abuse the love of God, nor act un- 
worthy of his providence, by defiling what came to me 
clean. No : let the Lord guide me by his wisdom to honor 
his name, and serve his truth and people, that an example 
and a standard may be set up to the nations. There may be 
room there, though not here, for the holy experiment." 

Subject only to the careless negligence or capricious exac- 
tions of a weak king, Penn was now an absolute sovereign 
over a growing and confiding people. Was this right ? 
Would he hold on to this power, and attempt to give it 
hereditary descent ? Hear him again : " For the matter of 
liberty, I purpose that which is extraordinary, — to leave my- 
self and successors no power of doing mischief; that the 
will of one man may not hinder the good of a whole 
country. It is' the great end of government to support 
power in reverence with the people, and to secure the people 
from the abuse of power; for liberty without obedience is 
confusion, and obedience without liberty is slavery." 

Noble words, and as real and sincere as they are noble. 
How high he rose above the governmental theories of English 
civilization ! 

If it be asked, " How came this man to be so nobly superior 
to the selfishness of his time ? " we must candidlj^ answer. His 
views of himself and his fellow-men arose directly from his 
conceptions of God. Glance at his history, and you see this 
distinctly. Bred an Independent, he became, at twelve 
years, serious and thoughtful. It was only necessary for 
him to hear a Quaker at Oxford to start the train of spirit- 
ual thought and expression which would expel him for 
nonconformity. From his own father's hand he received 
the first personal violence for the freedom he claimed for 
his conscience. Becominsj a studied and travelled sjentle- 



THE NORTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. 145 

man, his way was open to preferment ; but he had met and 
once more heard his old friend Thomas Loe, and his spirit- 
ual consciousness was at once attentive to '' the voice within," 
and " William Penn was a Quaker again, or some very 
melancholy thing." " God," said he, " in his everlasting 
kindness, guided my feet in the flower of my youth, when 
about two and twenty years of age." In jail for the free 
action of conscience, he said, " Religion is my crime and my 
innocence : it makes me a prisoner to malice, but my own 
freeman." For asserting his rights, and professing his faith, 
through the press, he was a prisoner in the Tower until he 
should learn the virtues of conformity. " My prison shall be 
my grave" was his noble answer. To the king he wrote 
grandly, " The Tower is to me the worst argument in the 
world." He was at large once more, but had spoken at a 
"conventicle," and was again under arrest. "Not all the 
powers on earth shall divert us from meeting to adore our 
God who made us," said the lofty soul of this prince of men. 
When the magistrate remonstrated with him, he answered, 
" I prefer the honestly simple to the ingeniously wicked." 
His notes of freedom rang out from Newgate : " If we cannot 
obtain the olive-branch of toleration, we bless the provi- 
dence of God, resolving by patience to outweary persecu- 
tion, and by our constant sufferings to obtain a victory more 
glorious than our adversaries can achieve by their cruelties." 
He was before a committee of the Commons to plead for. 
liberty, not for the Quakers merely, but for all. " We must 
give the liberty we ask," said he : " we cannot be false to our 
principles, though it were to relieve ourselves ; for we would 
have none to suffer for dissent on any hand." To the 
electors in a canvass he said, " Your well-being depends upon 
your preservation of your right in the government. You 
are free ; God and nature and the constitution have made 
you trustees for posterity. Choose men who will, by all 
just and legal ways, firmly keep and zealously promote 
your power." 



146 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

This was the man, who, under the crown, was intrusted 
with the civil liberties of Delaware, a good part of New 
Jersey, and the vast State of Pennsylvania. Who could 
have any doubt as to what he would do? With the great 
sovereign of human liberty before his eyes, and. fresh from 
the cruel sufferings borne for conscience' sake in his native 
land, he hastened to the field of his mission across the 
waters. With his heart glowing with love, he entered the 
land of his inheritance, " a free colony for all mankind," to 
try "the holy experiment." Swedes, Dutch, and English 
hailed him as a common protector and friend ; and wild 
savages were quiet as lambs at his feet, when they had heard 
his words, and gazed deep down into his heart under " the 
large elm-tree at Shakamaxon." " We will live," responded 
the Lenni Lenapes, "in love with William Penn and his 
children as long as the moon and the sun shall endure;" and 
no Quaker ever perished from Indian arrow. " We have 
done better," said the Quakers, " than if, with the proud 
Spaniards, we had gained the mines of Potosi. We may 
make the ambitious heroes, whom the world admires, blush 
for their shameful victories. To the poor, dark souls round 
about us, we teach their rights as men." 

We have no reason to trace the action of these humane 
principles in the formation of a government. The people, 
so far as Penn could make them, were free as air. They 
might assemble as a general convention, or by represen- 
tatives. They preferred the latter, and, in the simplicity of 
their faith, listened to the voice within to give them their 
laws; and be assured this voice would suggest nothing but 
pure freedom to a Quaker. Swedes, Finns, Dutch, and 
English were completely and alike invested with the rights 
of freemen, and could exult in the language of Lawrence 
Cook, " It is the best day we have ever seen." Penn had 
fomided in the New World a pure democracy. 

It was not, to be sure, to be all sunshine. The great pro- 
prietor, who had reserved nothing for himself, must leave 



THE NORTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. 147 

his people to their own wisdom. There would be divisions 
among them for a time. Delaware must set up for herself 
and finally his Majesty's commissioners must come to vex 
the honest Quakers. But they had passed through the fire 
in other days. They would vindicate the hopes of their 
founder, and, amid the praises of the world, sustain their own 
liberties with the noblest moral heroism. 



THE GREAT WEST. 

We have thus traced the history of God's providence in 
the settlement of all the original thirteen States, so far as 
to identify the religious force active in their colonization and 
the foundation of their respective systems of civil liberty. 
The Northern group, commencing thirteen years later than 
the Southern, has shown great vigor, and attracted a hardy, 
enterprising population, and, before the war of the Revolu- 
tion, reached a commanding position in all the elements of a 
growing civilization. 

But the Northern group was far from being completed. 
Within the bosom of the great wilderness, stretching out 
over the vast prairies, and on over the Rocky Mountains to 
the Pacific, lay the great States and Territories of the West. 
The boundary-line between the Southern and Northern group 
was not at once clearly defined. The institution of slavery 
alone would determine it. During the period now under 
consideration, the colonies were alike free to adopt or reject 
the system of slave-labor, as States are free, if they will, to 
violate all moral principle, and fix upon themselves the guilt 
of crime which will some day demand a fearful and bloody 
retribution. And, with notable exceptions, there was a 
strange want of conscience in the North, which required the 
demonstration, that the nature of the soil and the severity 
of the climate would not allow reliance upon slave-labor, to 
place it clearly on the side of emancipation. Slowly the 
beginnings of this foul system of oppression in the North dis- 



148 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

appeared ; and free labor moved southward, until the famous 
Mason and Dixon's Line became distinct, and the equally 
famous Missouri Compromise stretched the line between the 
two groups farther west. But the boundary between free- 
dom and slavery was not physically indicated in the West 
and South-west. The interference of God's providence was 
necessary to save large portions of the Mississippi Valley and 
the Pacific coast from the deep stain ; and hence the popula- 
tion went into these territories from American States and 
from Europe, firmly fixed against slavery. The struggle 
went on for two generations : and, under the divine control, 
the area of freedom extended so rapidly as to parallel, and 
at length fairly outstrip, the progress of slavery; and the 
Northern group completed embraced, in addition to her large 
portion of the old thirteen, the vast territories and teeming 
population of Vermont, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, 
Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Dacotah, Col- 
orado, New Mexico, Utah, Montana, Nevada, California, Ore- 
gon, Washington, and. Idaho. What could resist the spirit 
of freedom under guidance of Providence, controlling the 
millions who would inhabit a region so immense in extent, 
and inexhaustible in resources ? 

Slavery struggled hard for predominance over the southern 
portion of this great West, and thus over the nation ; and if 
the talents and shrewdness, the political scheming and wealth, 
of men could have produced it, this result would have been 
inevitable. The final defeat of this grasping tyranny, and the 
grand triumph of liberty in the West, argue a reigning 
Divinity in the affairs of men. The battle was at length 
fairly joined ; and, when it reached its colossal proportions, 
the parties were so large and potent, and so nearly balanced, 
as to bring out before the eyes of men the extreme force 
and terrific energy of both slavery and freedom. This the 
purposes of God required ; and all the efforts of humanity 
during a hundred years were utterly inadequate to pre- 
vent it. 



THE NORTHEKN GROUP COMPLETED. 149 

PROVIDENCE AND WAR-DISCIPLINE. 

To complete our view of the colonization period of Amer- 
ican history, it is necessary to glance at the question of 
dominant races on the continent. 

The aboriginal tribes were numerous, and in many respects 
powerful, when the white men first appeared. Though sup- 
posed to have already commenced their steady decline, they 
were estimated at one hundred and eighty thousand souls. 
A much larger estimate was made subsequently. The num- 
ber of immigrants was for a generation so small as to make 
it fearfully probable that they would be overwhelmed by 
their savage foes whom they had taught to fight, and whose 
cruel ferocity they had roused to the extreme of vindictive 
rao-e. 

o 

At length they found an opportunity of acting in concert 
with one white nation engaged in bloody war with another ; 
and the French and Indian War was to overwhelm the 'Emt- 
lish, and subjugate or expel them from the continent. This 
contest was to reach proportions at first hardly deemed pos- 
sible. Indeed, if God intended the final ascendency of the 
Anglo-Saxons here, he evidently intended that they should 
be themselves so small and feeble, and their rivals should be 
so numerous and powerful, that their triumph would be 
clearly the work of his own hand. Spaniards held their 
position with great tenacity, and crowded strongly from 
Florida on the south, and Mexico on the west. The Dutch 
were very strong on the Hudson and the Delaware, and v^^ere 
crowding New England hard in the Valley of the Connecti- 
cut. The boundaries of New France were stretchins; for- 
midably from the St. Lawrence round into the Valley of the 
Mississippi. England had but a small strip of the Atlantic 
coast, and much of that was disputed territory. Who could 
have believed that New Spain, New Sweden, and New Amster- 
dam, would, one after another, disappear under the spreading 
power of the little bands gathering around Jamestown and 



150 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

Plymouth Rock ? And yet they did disappear. An invisible 
agency most evidently moved withhi the outward forms of 
social life, and secured the result which the plans of Provi- 
dence required. 

France might with apparently good reason expect to suc- 
ceed. Her territory was so large, her energy so powerful, 
and her alliance with savage tribes so formidable, that there 
seemed almost a moral certainty that the Atlantic slope must 
yield to the ascendency of French arms and ideas ; and, if 
so, the final triumph of Poper}' on the Western continent 
was inevitable. Two bloody wars must settle the question. 
It is not our duty to trace their history ; but the purpose of 
God came out at last when the brave English ascended to 
" the Heights of Abraham," and Montcalm, Quebec, and 
French domination, fell before the heroic Wolf and his com- 
rades in arms. 

Under God, the Americans in sufficient numbers had en- 
tered the conflict to secure the triumph of England over 
France, and received a military discipline which would pre- 
pare America to triumph over England. 




^ASK]QI?3©T(0) 



^^ Jiy B D BaO.^ur'-'M-"^ H"^" 



PERIOD II. 

INDEPENDENCE. 



CHAPTER I. 

mND-BATTLES POINT TO A DISINTHRALLED NATIONAL LIFE. 

"As interesting mankind, the question was, Shall the Reformation, developed to the fulness 
of free inquiry, succeed in its protest against the middle ages ? " — Bancroft. 

Essential freedom is in the mind. If this is inthralled, no 
outward forms can make a man free. Government creates 
no liberty. It can recognize it when it exists, respond to it, 
and provide for it; or it can assault and repress it. Hence it 
is, that the emancipation of thought, and deliverance from 
mental tyranny in the regeneration, become the precursors 
of organized liberty. The legitimate result does not always 
follow. Oppression may be for a time too strong for the 
inner force. The people may be wanting in clearness of 
views, or in public spirit, or in completeness of organization. 
Stern discipline may be required to bring them up to the 
point of proper resistance. The contest once commenced, 
however, can never be ended but by the triumph of the right. 

In this examination of the early historj^ of our country, 
we have reached a period in which the mental conflict pre- 
ceding the War of the Revolution must be sharper, and bet- 
ter defined. Our duty is to trace the progress of this war 
of principle, so far as to determine the character of the 
effective power which presided over the contest, and finally 
controlled the result. 

151 



152 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

THE RIGHT OF SOIL. 

Upon the ground of pre-occupation, this would seem to 
have been in the Indian tribes. It is, however, to be con- 
sidered that these wandering; savasres were, to a larsre extent, 
unsettled. In some instances, and in particular localities, 
they were sufficiently permanent to establish their claim. 
In every such case, the white people, whether English or 
Spanish or French, were bound to obtain the right of settle- 
ment by fair negotiation, or pass on to other parts of the 
great continent, where it was possible to found their claims 
in justice. In every instance, God opened the way of those 
who, like Oglethorpe and Penn and Williams, endeavored to 
deal fairly with the natives; but in the bloody wars which 
followed the summary processes of intruders, and those 
which resulted from open robbery, or angrj^ attacks of either 
party, an account of responsibility ran up of which Infinite 
Wisdom alone could judge, and which Infinite Justice alone 
can finally settle. 

It is here, however, due to state, that it cost our ancestors 
incredible suffering, and many precious lives, to establish 
their right to live where the Indians had roamed. It is not 
necessary for us to trace these desolating Indian wars at 
length. They were only preliminary to the severe struggles 
which the colonists were compelled to pass through with the 
mother-country on the same ground. These were reall}' 
moral rather than physical battles. 

But when the savao;es resio:ned their huntino;-o;rounds to 
the steady advance of civilization, or bargained them away 
to the colonists, to whom did they belong? The government 
answered, " They are the property of the crown." Indeed, 
as we have already seen, they were claimed originally by 
right of discovery. One after another, the square miles of 
our continent, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, were 
"granted" away for certain defined or undefined immunities 
yet to be realized by the monarch, but extending indefinitely 
into the future. 



A DISINTHEALLED NATIONAL LIFE. 153 

Proprietaries and companies, with enormous privileges, 
might hold the land under the crown ; but their rights could 
be reversed, and concessions revoked, at the pleasure of the 
king. This involved the comfort and rights of the settlers ; 
for they gradually obtained privileges from these grand 
monopolies, which were valuable. Under various acts of 
spontaneous legislation, and by capricious acts of the mon- 
arch, there grew up a feeling of ownership in the soil, upon 
the part of individuals ; and the people would first contend 
with the proprietaries and companies against the crown, and 
then against all monopolists, for the right to own the lands 
which they had rescued from the forests, and with incredible 
toil brought under cultivation, and thus given them their 
real value. 

One of these famous contests came on in 1623 between 
James and the London Company. As the shares were un- 
productive, it revealed only a very doubtful property-interest; 
but it brought out a spirit of political independence, which 
surprised the king, and which became the true reason for the 
destruction of the company. The king could not suppress 
the freedom of debate in the company, nor control the elec- 
tions. He would, therefore, demand the surrender of their 
charter. This they stubbornly refused, undertaking to secure 
private and corporate rights against a despotic government ; 
but it was of no avail. Pretexts could be found in the mis- 
management of the company in Virginia. Commissioners 
appeared there to investigate the acts of alleged malefeasance. 
And now the Virginians appear to assert property-rights, 
which had never been aro^ued before the crown. There were 
wrongs which they would like to have redressed, but not by 
the destruction of the fundamental rights under which they 
claimed to own their estates. The company went down by 
royal decree ; but the new power just coming into notice in 
the colony could not be so easily disposed of Espionage, 
king-craft, and intimidations were alike unavailing. Liberty 
had taken deep root in this virgin soil. As easily might his 

20 



154 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

Majesty tear up the giant trees of the American forests as 
to eradicate it. The Assembly convened under this very 
charter would vindicate the rights of property " against arbi- 
trary taxation "at all hazards. Not an inch would they 
yield to despotic exactions. " The governor shall not lay 
any taxes or ympositions upon the colony, their lands, or 
commodities, other way than b}'^ authority of the General 
Assembly, to be levyed and ymployed as the said Assembl}' 
shall appoynt." 

Now, the origin of this controversy was farther back. If 
these colonists had a right, as individuals, to the soil on which 
they lived, if the right of discovery was not a right to mo- 
nopolize the continent, then the king, in granting patents to 
adventurers, had no right to pre-empt this vast domain, and 
exclude, at pleasure, the individuals and famiUes who were 
to reclaim it from the wild beasts. Then they were men, and 
not merely loyal subjects of the king; and their right to the 
soil came through a great law of the Creator to which kings 
as well as people are subject. Then an attempt to govern 
them as mere tenants at will, or dispose of the avails of their 
industry as serfs, was oppressive ; and, when the Virginians 
stood up inflexibly against it, they began to assert the rights 
which man had assailed, and which God would defend. This 
was the opening battle in the war of independence, and the 
colonists triumphed. 

The Plymouth Colony could obtain no " royal patent ; yet 
their claim to their land was valid, according to the principles 
of English law as well as natural justice." * 

One after another, the colonies set up the rights which 
belong only to freeholders. Companies, as the profits of 
their investments were exceedingly small, and the balance 
was not unfrequently against them, were more easily shaken 
off than the king. The value of proprietary estates was 
seen to be in the increase of the population, and the con- 
tentment and thrift of the people : hence extravagant de- 

* Buncroft, i. 320. 



A DISINTHRALLED NATIONAL LIFE. 155 

mands became unprofitable, and concessions to settlers were 
steadily accumulating in the form of vested rights. The 
transfer of the official residences and headquarters from Eno-- 
land to Massachusetts was one of the great steps indicating'' 
progress in the right direction. But on the 23d of July, 
1664, his Majesty's'commissioners arrived; and they would 
assume control over this question of the right of soil, and 
all other questions. 

" The lands " claimed by the settlers in Massachusetts, the 
royalists said, "belonged to Robert Gorges;" but these Puritan 
intruders had " made themselves a free people." " The right 
of England to the soil, under the pretence of discovery, they 
derided as a Popish doctrine, derived from Alexander VI. ; 
and they pleaded, as of more avail, their just occupation, and 
their purchase from the natives ;" " and, as the establishment 
of a commission with discretionary powers was not specially 
sanctioned by their charter, they resolved to resist the orders 
of the king, and nullify his commission." * 

In 1672, Carteret began to think it time to collect his 
quit-rents of half a penny an acre from the New-Jersey Puri- 
tans; but they resisted the lawyers with the very primitive 
doctrine, that " the heathen, as the lineal descendants of Noah, 
had a rightful claim to their lands." They chose, therefore, 
to get their titles from the Indians, refuse to pay their "quit- 
rents" to parties who never had lawfully owned the soil, and, 
by act of assembly, to drive away " Mr. Carteret," and keep 
him away, until he could learn not to speak of " quit-rents " 
for " the lands belonging of right to New-Jersey freemen." 

These are specimens of the contest which arose inevitably 
in this virgin land. Titles acquired from the natives by 
honest contract, or acquired under the primal laws of dis- 
covery and occupation by hardy Christian enterprise, or 
obtained by concessions wrung from proprietaries, compa- 
nies, or the crown, as the result of firmness in asserting the 
right, were so many victories in the great mind-struggle 
which preceded the wars of the Revolution. 

* Bancroft, ii. 79. 



156 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

THE RIGHTS OF TRADE. 

As soon as the feeble colonists began to discover native 
products which could be converted into articles of traffic, or 
to produce from the soil a little corn and tobacco, companies 
and proprietaries began to dictate the laws of trade, exact 
revenue, and establish grand monopolies, the tendency of 
which was to impoverish the settlers, and enrich the govern- 
ing classes. When, therefore, the spirit of Virginians rose 
sufficiently high to say, " For the encouragement of men to 
plant store of corn, the price shall not be restricted, but 
it shall be free for every man to sell it as deare as he can," 
they used brave words, which contained the fundamental 
principle of free and successful trade. 

In 1622, the commerce of New England began to attract 
attention. These Puritans were likely to have advantages, 
which, in the judgment of men " at home," from whose op- 
pression they had fled, were of very questionable right. " In 
the second year after the settlement of Plymouth, five and 
thirty sail of vessels went to fish on the coasts of New Eng- 
land, and made good voyages. The monopolists appealed 
to King James; and the monarch, preferring to assert his own 
extended prerogatives rather than to regard the spirit of 
the House of Commons, issued a proclamation which forbade 
any to approach the northern coast of America, except with 
the special leave of the Company of Plymouth or of the 
Privy Council. It was monstrous thus to attempt to seal 
up a large portion of an immense continent."* Will the at- 
tempt succeed ? " Your patent," said Sir Edward Coke to 
Gorges, " contains many particulars contrary to the laws and 
privileges of the subject : it is a monopoly, and the ends of 
private gain are concealed under color of planting a colony. 
Shall none visit the seacoast for fishinur ? This is to make a 
monopoly upon the seas, which wont to be free. If you alone 
are to pack and dry fish, you attempt a monopoly of the 
wind and the sun." It was in vain for Sir George Calvert to 

* Bancroft, i. 325. 



A DISINTHRALLED NATIONAL LIFE. 157 

growl, " The fishermen hinder the plantations ; they choke 
the harbors with their ballast, and waste the forests by im- 
provident use." The Commons were determined. The bill 
repealing this odious patent " passed without amendment." 
James refused his assent; but neither that nor his royal orders 
already quoted availed any thing. Both patent and orders 
went down with the monopoly of the company in a struggle 
with a handful of Pilgrims representing the principles of 
eternal justice. 

In 1642, the Virginians come up to this question again. 
Under the administration of Sir William Berkeley, they assert 
their rights in the clearest and most dio-nified lang-uao-e. 
" Freedom of trade," they insist, " is the blood and life of a 
commonwealth." 

Spain and Portugal were greedy of the profits of trade ; 
and, based upon the enterprise of discovery, sanctioned by 
the authority of Rome, they resolved upon a monopoly of 
the commerce of the world, and " denounced the severest 
penalties " against those who should dare to intrude. God, 
however, made use of the commercial freedom of Holland to 
antagonize this usurpation, and wrest from the usurpers the 
dominion of the seas. Then the Dutch, in their turn, became 
the commercial monopolists of Europe. 

England rose up to dispute this sovereignty of the 
ocean. Cromwell resisted Holland, and established the fa- 
mous Navigation Act. He was friendly to the colonies ; 
and, intending to make America the great commercial inter- 
est of the commonwealth, he accorded to her the unrestricted 
sale of her great staple in all the markets of the world. 

Monarchy restored returned immediately to its old pas- 
sion for revenues, and determined upon monopolies of Amer- 
ican trade, and especially of the tobacco-trade, as the means 
of accomplishing the purpose. Charles " invoked the au- 
thority of the Star Chamber to assist in filling his exchequer 
by new and onerous duties on tobacco." He sent commis- 
sioners to buy up the whole crop. The colonists dared to 



158 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

resist; and he would try other proclamations, restricting the 
markets to London, determined in some way, by " his will 
and pleasure, to have the sole pre-emption of all tobacco." 

Whenever it seemed necessary, for the time being, to con- 
sent to the measures which sought to forge commercial fet- 
ters for the colonists, it was done with such caution as to 
give no historical advantage to tyranny. 

In 1663, "the importation of European commodities into 
the colonies, except in English ships from England," was pro- 
hibited by a stringent law. Even exchanges between New 
England and the Southern colonies were prohibited ; and 
duties were levied upon little articles of traffic between these 
future States, the same as on foreign goods. Americans were 
forbidden to manufacture articles which would compete with 
England ; and this odious system of monopoly was fortified 
by all the cruelty that ingenuity could crowd into at least 
" twenty-nine acts of Parliament." 

The contest must, therefore, go on. The right to cripple 
and virtually destroy American trade, so fiercely asserted, 
was just as persistently denied, until the battles of mind 
resulted in blood. 



THE RIGHT OF REPRESENTATION AND FREE LEGISLATION. 

We have seen that one of the first instincts of colonists, 
whether under the patronage of England, or refugees from 
her tyranny, was to provide laws for the protection of per- 
sonal and social rights, and the preservation of public order. 
This necessity, at first acquiesced in by all parties, at length 
became a question of vigorously-contested prerogative. 

In 1621, Virginia received through Sir George Yeardley 
a written constitution for '•' the great comfort and benefit 
of the people, and the prevention of injustice, grievances, 
and oppression ;" and " the system of representative govern- 
ment, and trial by jury, thus became in New Hemisphere an 
acknowledged right." This concession was, however, only 



A DISINTHEALLED NATIONAL LIFE. 159 

indirectly from the crown, and would be recalled whenever 
the caprice of tyranny suggested it. 

Virginia, however, would and did make her own laws. 
" There is more likelihood," she said distinctly in the ears 
of power, " that such as are acquainted with the clime and 
its accidents may upon better grounds prescribe our advan- 
tages than such as shall sit at the helm in England," 

Maryland, one day in advance of Virginia, in the house of 
Robert Sly, claimed through her lawful representatives the 
right of independent legislation. 

The other colonies of the Southern group followed in the 
train. Severe contests arose ; but the future Republic never 
retraced her steps. 

The Pilgrims, as we have seen, asserted their right of self- 
government in " The Mayflower." This right they never 
surrendered. " The Bay State " resisted every encroach- 
ment upon her fundamental rights, and, in 1634, enacted 
" the test oath," requiring from every freeman sworn alle- 
giance, " not to King Charles, but to Massachusetts." 

No charter granting prerogatives of government could as 
yet be obtained. The Plymouth colonists would like to have . 
it, would try hard, and expend much money in an attempt 
to get it ; but, if they failed, they would surrender no right, 
and omit no act necessary to vindicate the righteous prerog- 
atives of God's freemen. 

" Relying upon their original compact, the colonists gradu- 
ally assumed all the prerogatives of government ; even the 
power, after some hesitation, of capital punishment. No less 
than eight capital offences are enumerated in the first Plym- 
outh code, including treason or rebellion against the colony, 
and ' solemn compaction or conversing with the Devil.' Trial 
by jury was early introduced ; but the punishments to be in- 
flicted on minor offences remained, for the most part, discre- 
tionary. For eighteen years, all laws were enacted in gen- 
eral assembly of all the colonists. The governor chosen 
annually was but president of a council, in which he had 



160 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

a double vote. It consisted first of one, then of five, and 
finally of seven councillors, called ' assistants.' So little were 
political honors coveted at New Plymouth, that it became 
necessary to inflict a fine upon such as, being chosen, declined 
to serve as governor or assistant. None, however, were to 
be obliged to serve for two years in succession." * 

New Hampshire asserted the rights of self-government, and 
with great boldness defied the measures of power. 

By the people on the Island of Rhode Island, it was 
" unanimously agreed upon that the government which this 
body politic doth attend unto in this island, and the jurisdic- 
tion thereof in favor of our province, is a democracie of 
popular government ; that is to say, it is the power of the 
body of freemen orderly assembled, or major part of them, 
to make or constitute just lawes by which they will be regu- 
lated, and to depute from among themselves such ministers 
as shall see them faithfully executed between man and 
man." 

In November, 1681, there was a legislature of true repre- 
sentatives of the honest people in West New Jersey ; " of men 
who said thee and thou, and wore their hats in presence of 
beggar or king." "They framed their government on the 
basis of humanity. Neither faith nor wealth nor race was 
respected. They met in the wilderness as men, and founded 
society on equal rights." f 

New York, in public assembly held in 1683, said, " Supreme 
legislative power shall forever be and reside in the governor, 
council, and people met in general assembly." 

Pennsylvania in 1693, in contest with Fletcher, governor 
under William and Mary, would not allow that their legisla- 
tive acts required even " the great seal of the proprietary." 
'■ We know the laws to be our laws," the " poor men " who 
" represented the people " said ; " and we are in the enjoy- 
ment of them. The sealing does not make the law, but the 
consent of governor, council, and assembly." 

* Hildreth, i. 175. t Bancroft, ii. 360. 



A DISINTHRALLED NATIONAl, LIFE. 161 

Thus one colony after another took up the same position 
in effect ; and the Northern group also became a unit in af- 
firming the right of the people to make laws for themselves. 

The statutes of freedom, rising directly up from Nature, 
defining practical justice according to the subtle, all-pervad- 
ing public sense, in distinction from the sophistries of learned 
dishonesty, became the materials of State governments, and, 
at length, of the fundamental constitution of the Great Re- 
public. 

THE RIGHT OF TAXATION. 

The home government assumed the right to tax the 
American colonists wholly in the interests of the crown, 
allowing them no representation in Parliament. This was 
the grand question at issue : Had the government of Eng- 
land the right to judge for the people of America, with- 
out information direct from them, what they ought to 
pay ? Was the king in council the lord paramount of the 
colonies, so that he could, at discretion, appropriate such 
avails of the labor of men, virtually expatriated, as he 
chose? The American people said, "No. Taxation with- 
out representation is oppression. We cannot, will not, 
submit to it." 

At first, this seemed to England a mere freak of these colo- 
nists ; an indication that indulgence had produced haughti- 
ness, and contempt of authority ; and it was deemed only a 
question of convenience how far this should be indulged, and 
when it should be effectually put down. 

But gradually it assumed the proportions of a grave issue, 
and became a question of principle, which could not be 
determined by mere prerogative. 

As early as 1624, the voice of Virginia, as we have seen 
in another connection, was clear and firm upon this ques- 
tion. Let her words of independent manhood be repeated : 
"The governor shall not lay any tax or ympositions upon 
the colony, their lands or commodities, otherway than by 



162 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

the authoritie of the General Assembly, to be levyed and 
ymployed as the said Assembly shall appoynt." Mark the 
la,nguage. "The governor shall not." No weak petition, 
no words of imploring suffering, but words of authority, 
bringing out thus early the feeling of sovereignty in the 
colonists, destined to appear in the world's future as a new 
function of our common manhood. 

In 1634, this contest began to assume distinctness in 
Massachusetts. The mild and liberal Winthrop, cautiously 
representing the crown, finally suggested that the power in 
question resided in the " assistants." But no influence could 
allay the spirit of personal independence which Providence 
intended to develop. Officers were not masters in America ; 
certainly not upon questions of civil rights so sacred as 
those which then pressed upon the hearts of New England's 
bravest, noblest men. 

" The people established a reformation of such things as 
they judged to be amiss in the government;" and, among 
other things, a " law against arbitrary taxation " was passed. 
"None but the immediate representatives of the people 
might dispose of lands, or raise money. Thus early did 
Massachusetts echo the voice of Virginia, like the moun- 
tains replying to the thunder, or like deep calling unto 
deep." * 

In 1683, New York, in her first free Assembly under 
English rule, responded to Virginia and Massachusetts in 
the same clear, ringing notes of freedom, " No tax shall be 
assessed, on any pretence whatever, but by the consent of 
the Assembly." 

" It were madness," cried out the Quakers of West New 
Jersey against the Duke of York, " to leave a free country to 
plant a wilderness, and give another person an absolute 
right to tax us at will The King of England cannot take 
his subjects' goods without their consent." 

Let this controversy go on for a quarter of a century, till 

* Bancroft, i. 367. 



A DISINTHRALLED NATIONAL LIFE. 163 

royalty returns from its banishment, and Puritanism in Eno-- 
land is reduced to cruel subjection amid the death-throes of 
liberty, and what will then be the condition of the contest 
in the New World ? Then, it is presumed, prerogatives may 
be absolute in New England. Parliament formally assumed 
it ; and the subsidy of " five per cent on all merchandise 
exported from or imported into the kingdom of England," 
or " any of his Majesty's dominions thereunto belonging," 
granted to Charles II., Avas made by express definition to 
apply to the American colonies. 

But the king could by no possible means obtain his five- 
per-cent subsidy from America. The temper of the people 
would not allow it. It was unlawful. The colonies were 
not bound by any act of Parliament, unless expressly named ; 
and it was useless to levy the tax. 

Nor would a hundred-years' conflict subdue American 
resistance to such high-handed injustice. The final decis- 
ion was in Boston Harbor, where the resistance of the people 
to " taxation without representation " dashed the cargo of 
tea into the ocean. The people of these colonies could listen 
to the growl and murmur of power ; they could bleed, and, 
if need be, die, in defence of their rights : but they could by 
no means bow down their necks to the yoke of oppression. 
God had sent them to America for an entirely different 
purpose. 

THE RIGHT OF FREE SPEECH, A FREE BALLOT, AND A FREE PRESS. 

The time had come when " the freemen of every town in 
the Bay State were busy in inquiring into their liberties and 
privileges." Said the representative of royal prerogative, 
" Elections cannot be safe there long ; " but the people an- 
swered by publishing boldly their understanding of human 
rights, and going on with the " elections." 

The Eno;lish Government beo;an to realize that to enforce 
the high prerogatives of the crown in America would re- 
quire absolute and continuous subjugation. This was no 



1(34 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

trijfle ; and the men in power roused themselves to a more 
vigorous and determined effort. 

" The general patent of New England was surrendered " 
by royalists " to the king." The Plymouth Colony, greatly 
desiring release from the overshadowing influence of her 
powerful neighbor, determined to secure of the king "a 
confirmation of their respective grants," and a repeal of the 
Massachusetts patent. The company was arraigned before 
the court. Terrible persecutions followed. The malicious 
cruelty of the infamous Laud condemned men to the most 
horrible mutilations for the crime of long-ino; to be free. 
Wentworth stirred up the resentment of power firmly 
resisted. " The very genius of that nation of people," he 
said, " leads them always to oppose, both civilly and ecclesi- 
astically, all that ever authority ordains for them." The 
faithful Prynne stood before the bar of tyranny a second 
time for daring to write and speak, to print and publish, his 
principles. " I thought," said Lord Finch, " that Prynne had 
lost his ears already ; but there is something left yet : " and 
an officer of the court displayed the mutilated organs. " I 
pray to God," replied Prynne, " you may have ears to hear 
me. Christians," said he, as he presented the stumps of his 
ears to be grubbed out by the hangman's knife, " stand fast, 
be faithful to God and your country, or you will bring on 
yourselves and your children perpetual slavery." This was 
the noblest heroism, the highest moral grandeur. The spirit 
of the martyrs was in this life-and-death struggle for liberty. 
Its friends were " enforced by heaps to desert their native 
country. Nothing but the wide ocean, and the savage des- 
erts of America, could hide and shelter them from the fury 
of the bishops." But even this poor resort was soon denied, 
and Puritan sufferers were forbidden the right of expatria- 
tion. 

In the mean time, two grand movements in New England 
revealed the presence and active power of Providence in 
behalf of liberty. The people were about to exercise their 



A DISINTHEALLED NATIONAL LIFE. 165 

rights in an election. Conservatism was alarmed. The de- 
termined Cotton delivered a sermon to the masses of assem- 
bled freemen " against rotation in office." But the people 
boldly advanced ; and now for the first time the ballot-box, 
the palladium of American liberty, appeared. It was hence- 
forth to be the grand reliance of the people, and must and 
should be free. 

By the side of the ballot a free press promptly arranged 
itself It began to sound out its notes of liberty in 1639, and 
no power on earth could thenceforth silence or destroy it. 

Let us see what further these feeble colonists will do. In 
firm and dignified language they will attempt remonstrance 
against the cruel tyranny which seeks to deprive them of 
vested rights, and cautiously warn the king by foreshadow- 
ing the probable future. " If the patent be taken from us, 
the common people will conceive that his Majesty hath 
cast them off, and that hereby they are freed from their 
allegiance and subjection, and therefore will be ready to 
confederate themselves under a new government for their 
necessary safety and subsistence, which will be of dangerous 
example unto other plantations, and perilous to ourselves 
of incurring his Majesty's displeasure." 

But God interposed. Before this remonstrance reached 
the throne, the Scots had risen against Romish prayers 
and the superstitions of Prelacy. The monarch went down, 
and the colonists had twenty years of neglect in wdiich to 
grow. " Twenty-one thousand two hundred " emigrants had 
reached New England before the Long Parliament. They 
had come in " two hundred and ninety-eight ships," " and 
the cost of the plantations had been almost a million of 
dollars." "In a little more than ten years, fifty towns and 
villages had been planted; between thirty and forty churches 
built ; and strangers, as they gazed, could not but acknowl- 
edge God's blessing on the endeavors of the planters." * 

The liberty embodied in the commonwealth could not well 

* Bancroft, i. 415. 



165 • THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

avoid extending its influence to the New World. In March, 
1643, in response to the petitions of the colony presented by 
Hugh Peters and his two colleagues, as special messengers, 
charged with the general duty of vindicating colonial rights, 
the House of Commons publicly acknowledged that " the 
plantations in New England had, by the blessing of the 
Almighty, had good and prosperous success, without any 
public charge to the parent State ; " " and their imports and 
exports were freed from all taxation " " until the House of 
Commons shall take action to the contrary." 

For the time being, the people breathed more freely. The 
blessings of firmness in the defence of the right were begin- 
ning to appear, and liberty must gather strength for the 
terrific battles yet to come. American freemen would, when- 
ever emergency required, show that the elective franchise 
was, with them, no merely nominal thing. By choosing for 
important responsibilities " men of the inferior sort," and 
rejecting every man nominated by an aristocratic caucus, 
the people of Boston took occasion to teach the magis- 
trates that they were not to receive dictation from power, 
even amonsrst themselves. The freedom of the ballot, free 
sf)eech, and a free press, had become so dear to the people, 
that they would be guarded by the most vigilant care, and 
defended at all hazards. They were the very soul of Amer- 
ican liberty. In 1683, the people of New York in a free 
Assembly said, " Every freeholder and freeman shall vote for 
representatives without restraint ; no freeman shall suffer 
but by judgment of his peers; and all trials shall be by a 
jury of twelve men." Said the Quakers of West New Jersey, 
" The General Assembly shall be chosen, not by the confused 
way of cries and voices, but by the balloting-box. Every 
man is capable to choose or be chosen. We lay a founda- 
tion for after-ages to understand their liberty as Christians 
and as men, that they may not be brought into bondage 
but by their own consent; for we put the power in the 

PEOPLE." 



A DISINTHEALLED NATIONAL LIFE. 167 

THE RIGHT OF CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERTY, AND OF UNION FOR THE 
COMMON DEFENCE. 

Daring the early history of the American colonies, the pen 
had been busy. In every settlement, there were documents 
and records, which, in strong rhetoric and stern logic, defined 
the rights of the people. These gradually combined in the 
forms of fundamental law ; and the era of constitutions 
came on. 

In May, 1635, " to limit the direction of the Executive, 
the people demanded a written constitution ; and a commis- 
sion was appointed " " to frame a body of grounds of laws in 
resemblance to a Magna Charta," " to serve as a bill of rights. 
The ministers, as well as the General Court, were to pass 
judgment upon the work." Cotton would lead the people 
to seek their model in " the laws from God to Moses." Re- 
ligion controlled every thing ; and this stern old Puritan di- 
vine wrote to his " friends in Holland," " The order of the 
churches and the commonwealth is now so settled in New 
England by common consent, that it brings to mind the new 
heaven and new earth wherein dwells ritj-hteousness." 

The era of neglect, and consequent unparalleled prosperity, 
which preceded the Restoration, the people thought fivorable 
for giving more definite constitutional form to a " body of 
liberties." The magistrates, who had acquired a love of 
power, hardly saw the necessity for it ; but the people saw 
it, and Cotton had already prepared what he thought would 
serve the purpose, and probably prevent something more 
radical and disloyal, fortifying every part of it with texts of 
Scripture. 

But to Nathaniel Ward of Ipswich belongs the honor of 
framing " the fundamental code," which combined " the hu- 
mane doctrines of the common law with the principles of 
natural right and equity, as deduced from the Bible." "After 
mature deliberation, this ' model,' which, for its comprehen- 
siveness, may vie with any similar record from the days of 



168 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

Magna Charta, was adopted in December, 1641, as ' The 
Body of Liberties ' of the Massachusetts Colony." 

This was a representative government, including in gen- 
eral and in detail nearly all the great essential rights of free- 
men. These Puritan minds were, however, yet a little hazy 
on the subjects of slavery and religious toleration. " There 
shall never be any bond-slaverie, villanage, or captivitie 
amongst us, unless it be lawful captives taken in just warres, 
and such strangers as willingly selle themselves or are sold 
to us; and these shall have all the liberties and Christian 
usages which the law of God, established in Israel concerning 
such persons, doth morally require. This exempts none from 
servitude who shall be judged by authoritie." " If any 
man stealeth a man or mankind, he shall surely be put to 
death." 

Witchcraft was classed with blasphemy, and provided with 
the punishment ordered in the laws of Moses. The crimes 
now recognized in civilized countries as capital offences, and 
several in addition, were punishable with death. 

The practice and forms of religion were free to the virtu- 
ous and orthodox. 

Thus fairly commenced the formal assertion of constitu- 
tional rights, which would be repeated by different colonies 
and combinations, until the celebrated Articles of Confedera- 
tion issued from an American Congress, and finally the noble 
Constitution of the United States of America came from 
the people in representative convention assembled at the 
close of the Revolutionary War. 

The year 1643 marks an important epoch in the progress 
of American liberty. The desire for union amongst the 
colouies, which had been seeking expression since the Pequod 
War in 1637, assumed definite form. "The united colonies 
of New England " were " made all as one." The alleged 
motives for the confederacy were " protection against the 
encroachments of the Dutch and the French, security against 
the tribes of savages," and " the liberties of the gospel in 
' purity and peace." 



A DISINTHKALLED NATIONAL LIFE. 169 

Connecticut, jealous of the leadership of Massachusetts, 
demanded for each State a negative on the acts of the con- 
federation. Massachusetts refused ; and Connecticut was 
driven, by fear of the Dutch, to waive her doctrine of 
State rights. Plymouth Colony led the way in determining 
that the acts of the confederation should have no force until 
they were " confirmed by a majority of the people." 

This first form of the Union included " the colonies and 
separate governments of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecti- 
cut, and New Haven." 

The guidance of Providence thus early appeared in the 
growth and elevation of national ideas. They were ap- 
parently the result of increasing illumination on the great 
subjects of human rights and despotic assumptions, and of a 
common danger of rivals and enemies in the immediate 
neighborhood of the colonies. But, if die wisest men of the 
times foresaw but dimly that another much more formidable 
necessity for union would arise, God, under whose direc- 
tion the nation was forming, saw that coming necessity 
clearly, and provided for it. 

It is natural to ask why the plantations of Providence 
and Rhode Island were not admitted into this confederacy. 
The answer, we presume, ought to be substantially that 
assigned for not taking in the people beyond the Piscata- 
qua : " They ran a different course, both in their ministry 
and civil administration." They would not be Puritans. 
The old prejudice against Roger Williams is very evident. 
The Puritans had too high a sense of the sacredness of their 
orthodoxy to seem to indorse the grievous heresies of Provi- 
dence by political association with them. The Island of 
Rhode Island could not be admitted, ostensibly because the 
friends of Anne Hutchinson had refused the jurisdiction of 
Plymouth, If there was a deeper reason, it was probably 
in the fact that they were nonconformists with respect to 
the Church of the Puritans. 

These facts are due here, notwithstanding their exposure 

22 



170 THE GEEAT ELPUBLIC. 

of the pitiable narrowness of the governing minds of the 
Massachusetts Colony, that our readers may see how pro- 
found were the religious convictions which formed the 
foundation of our national ororanizations. The erroneous 
application of these convictions does not impair their his- 
torical verity or importance. It is easy for us to see, that, 
without them, no part of our peculiar national organization 
would have been possible. 

This New-England union, imperfect as it was, and reveal- 
ing alarmingly as it did the stern antagonisms of National 
and State rights, was nevertheless of great importance, as 
the bold assumption of the right of union for the common 
defence. This, in the eyes of English despotism, was con- 
spiracy and constructive treason ; but, under the control 
of God, it was a prudent advance in the career of republi- 
can liberty, the beginning of national organization. Like 
every other essential right, when once asserted by the 
American people, it was to be steadily maintained until it 
should be triumphantly vindicated and formally acknowl- 
edged by the civilized world. 

A broader representation of the people took place in 
New York in 1690. Delegates from Massachusetts, Ph'm- 
outli, Connecticut, and New York, met, in response to a. 
call from the General Court of Massachusetts, to agree upon 
plans for the invasion of Canada. "And it is worthy of 
remark, that the Massachusetts Government, which made 
the call, was the government which sprang up between the 
overthrow of Andros and the arrival of the new charter, 
and in which the po[)ular element was more freely mingled ; 
and the New- York Government, which accepted it, was the 
government of Leisler, which sprang directly from an up- 
rising of the people. Thus the earliest utterance of the 
people's voice was a call for union;"* but this union was 
for war. 

As Ave have before seen, another and highly important 

* Greene's Historical View of the American Rcvoliiiion, p]). C9, 70, et «((/. 



A DISINTHEALLED NATIONAL LIFE. 171 

congress assembled in Albany on the 19th of June, 1754. To 
the colonies of New England and New York were now 
added those of Pennsylvania and Maryland. Twenty-five 
delegates, representing seven colonies, met, " ostensibly to 
renew the treaty with the six nations, really to take counsel 
together about a plan of union and confederacy." 

Benjamin Franklin appears among the distinguished men 
of this Congress. His calm deliberation and keen insight 
had discovered the necessity for union, and a plan for its 
consummation. The idea of independence was held in abey- 
ance for the present ; but the union of men and means for 
common security seemed to many as no more than the dic- 
tate of common prudence. 

The extreme difficulty of the undertaking soon appeared; 
for after the perplexing labors of the Congress had brought 
out its best ideas in the form of a virtual though not osten- 
sible constitution, the provincial assemblies condemned it 
as having "too much of the prerogative in it." England 
condemned it for a reason exactly opposite, — it had " too 
much of the democracy." The great purpose of the Con- 
gress failed ; but the moral effect was of the highest im- 
portance. The facts and principles brought out by this 
comparison of views could never go out of existence. 
Through their representative men, they became the common 
property of the colonies, and greatly strengthened the pur- 
pose to preserve with inviolable fidelity the liberties of the 
people, while all just demands of the crown were to be loy- 
ally met. The feeling of the necessity of unity became 
stroufi-er as the dano;er became more threateningi:. " War 
was at the door ; war on the seaboard 5 war all along their 
northern and their western frontier." 

In 1765, the Massachusetts House of Representatives saw 
the stamp act impending, and resolved to ask counsel from 
the other colonies. In a circular, Samuel White, their speaker, 
invited their several assemblies " to appoint committees to 
meet in the city of New York, on the first Tuesday in Octo- 



172 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

ber next, to consult together on the present circumstances 
of the colonies, and the difficulties to which they are and 
must be reduced by the operation of the acts of Parliament 
for levying duties on the colonies ; and to consider of a gen- 
eral and united, dutiful, loyal, and humble representation of 
their condition to his Majesty and the Parliament; and to 
implore relief" 

Nine colonies were now represented by twenty-seven dele- 
gates, who met in the city of New York on the 7th of Octo- 
ber, in obedience to the call of Massachusetts. "Then James 
Otis first took John Dickinson by the hand." " Then Lynch 
and Gadsden and John Rutledge of South Carolina first sat 
on the same bench wath Thomas McKean and Caesar Rodney, 
of the counties that were to become Delaware; and Philip 
Livingston of New York, and Dyer of Connecticut, to com- 
pare feelings and wishes, as ten years later, when the horizon, 
now so dark, was already glowing with the swift approach of 
day, they were to meet and compare them again." * It was 
a great achievement for liberty to bring such men together. 

The result of this Congress was a petition to the king in 
language profoundly respectful, but firm and dignified; a 
petition to Parliament equally calm, but with more freedom 
of expression ; and " a declaration of rights and grievances " to 
the people of England and America, " claiming the right of 
taxing themselves, either personally or by representatives 
of their own choosing, the right of trial by jury, and the 
right of petition." f 

These were all State-papers of very great merit, showing 
that God had prepared minds of the clearest discrimination 
and highest culture to lead the struggle for American lib- 
erty. The Congress of 1765 accomplished its mission. It 
had given clear definition and great enlargement and assur- 
rance to its statesmen, and, through them, to the people gen- 
erally. It had also ascertained and increased the providen- 
tial unity and the true patriotism which would decide the 

♦ Greene, p. 75. t Ibid., p. 77. 



A DISTNTHEALLED NATIONAL LIFE. 173 

contest. There was henceforth no necessity that the British 
nation should misunderstand the issues between them and 
their American colonies. No right-minded man could fail to 
see that simple justice would secure perpetual and devoted 
loyalty; persistent oppression, revolution. 



ALL THESE RIGHTS DENIED, BUT NEVER SURRENDERED. 

Let us examine more minutely the sharpest points of this 
battle of mind with mind. A crisis of the gravest impor- 
tance came on. The Long Parliament was in power, and, in 
a famous case, had assumed "the right to reverse the decisions 
and control the government of Massachusetts." This was 
the grand question of the age, and the Puritans in America 
were instantly roused. Neither parliament nor king should 
be allowed this style of sovereignty. The commonwealth 
of England was Puritan ; but she must not usurp authoritj'' 
over the Puritans of New England. 

Cromwell was kind and plausible. He wished them to sur- 
render their charter, and would give them another, broader, 
better, than the old. But these Americans were shrewd and 
far-seeing. The Stuarts might return to the throne ; and to 
yield the charter now would be to be without it then. Policy 
in England had to grapple with a statesmanship in the New 
World which was amazing to men in power. " An order 
from England," thundered liberty across the waters, " is preju- 
dicial to our chartered liberties, and to our well-beino; in this 
remote part of the world. We have not admitted appeals 
to your authority ; being assured they cannot stand with the 
liberty and power granted by our charter, and would be 
destructive to all government. The wisdom and experience 
of that great council, the English Parliament, are more able 
to prescribe rules of government, and judge causes, than 
such poor rustics as a wilderness can breed up ; yet the vast 
distance between England and these parts abates the virtue 
of the strongest influences. Your counsels and your judg- 



174 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

ments can neither be so well grounded, nor so seasonably 
applied, as might either be useful to us, or safe for yourselves, 
in your discharge, in the great day of account. If any mis- 
carriage shall befall us when we have the government in our 
own hands, the State of England shall not answer for it." 

What words are these for " such poor rustics " to use ! 
But, members of Parliament, it will be safer for you to heed 
them. You are going to the judgment: do you hear? 
Yes ; and we yield. " We encourage no appeals from j^our 
justice. We leave 3'OU with all the freedom and latitude 
that may, in any respect, be duly claimed by you." Thus 
another grand crisis had passed. 

The Stuarts did indeed return, and with them their heredi- 
tary dread of liberty, and love of irresponsible power ; and 
soon a formal and obstinate assertion of legislative suprem- 
acy over the colonies commenced. 

Charles 11. was acknowledged in Massachusetts ; but a 
weak and dissolute man had no power to understand the 
value of growing colonies, fostered by parental care, and 
their loyalty consecrated by freedom. He must immedi- 
ately take measures to make these ambitious, headstrong 
Puritans feel the force of kingly prerogatives. The four 
colonies, he believed, had united for the express " purpose 
of throwing off dependence on England." Royal commis- 
sioners were soon on their way to bring these rebels under 
due subjection. 

The people took the alarm, and moved promptly for the 
protection of their invaluable rights. "The patent" was 
intrusted to prudent hands, and was soon safe from the 
clutches of tyranny. An appeal was made to God, in hum- 
ble listing and prayer, for the protection of liberty. 

On the 23d of July, 1G64, the fleet arrived in Boston Har- 
bor, ostensibly to subdue the Dutch, but really to sustain 
the commissioners, who had come "with full authority to 
provide for the peace of the country, according to the royal 
instructions and their own discretion." 



A DISINTHRALLED NATIONAL LIFE. 175 

In anticipation of this formidable usurpation of the crown, 
the General Court of Massachusetts had with great delibera- 
tion, and under the lead of such men as Bradstreet, Haw- 
thorne, Mather, and Norton, prepared " a declaration of 
natural and chartered rights." * 

The}^ are " to choose their own governor, dej)uty-gov- 
ernor, and representatives ; to admit freemen on terms to 
be prescribed at their own pleasure ; to set up all sorts of 
offices, superior and inferior, and point out their places ; to 
exercise by their annually-elected magistrates and deputies 
all power and authority, legislative, executive, and judicial ; 
to defend themselves by force of arms against every aggres- 
sion ; and to reject, as an infringement of their right, any 
parliamentary or royal imposition prejudicial to the country, 
and contrary to any just act of colonial legislation." 

These were no idle words. They were solemnly uttered 
and recorded, never to be revoked. The commissioners 
were received with studied coolness; and there was no more 
certain method of securing the contempt and ridicule of the 
people than to show them any attention, or even to be 
found willingly in their company ; while the remonstrance of 
the people to the king was in a style of stern directness and 
dignified statesmanship which must have made the capri- 
cious despot tremple on his throne. Read it : — 

"Dread Sovereign, — the first undertakers of this planta- 
tion did obtain a patent, wherein is granted full and absolute 
power of governing all the people of this place by men chosen 
from among themselves, and according to such laws as they 
should see meet to establish. A royal donation, under the 
great seal, is the greatest security that may be had in human 
affairs. Under the encouragement and security of the 
royal charter, this people did, at their own charges, trans- 
port themselves, their wives and families, over the ocean, 
purchase the land of the natives, and plant this colony, with 
great labor, hazards, cost, and difficulties ; for a long time 



176 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

wrestling with the wants of a wilderness, and the burdens of 
a new plantation ; having also now about thirty years en- 
joyed the privilege of government within themselves, as 
their undoubted right in the sight of God and man. To 
be gcfverned by rulers of our own choosing, and lawes of 
our own, is the fundamental privilege of our patent. 

" A commission under the great seal, wherein four persons 
(one of them our professed enemy) are empowered to re- 
ceive and determine all complaints and appeals according to 
their discretion, subjects us to the arbitrary power of stran- 
gers, and will end in the subversion of our all. 

" If these things go on, your subjects here will either be 
forced to seeke new dwellings, or sink under intolerable 
burdens. The vigor of all new endeavors will be enfeebled ; 
the king himself will be a loser of the wonted benefit by 
customs exported and imported from hence into England ; 
and this hopeful plantation will, in the issue, be ruined. 

" If the aime shall be to gratify some particular gentlemen 
by livings and revenues here, that will also fliil for the 
poverty of the people. If all the charges of the whole 
government by the year were put together, and then 
doubled or trebled, it would not be counted for one of those 
gentlemen a considerable accommodation. To a coalition in 
this course the people will never come ; and it will be hard 
to find another people that will stand under any consider- 
able burden in this country, seeing it is not a country where 
men can subsist without hard labor and great frugality. 

" God knows, our greatest ambition is to live a quiet life 
in a corner of the world. We came not into this wildernesse 
to seek great things to ourselves ; and, if any come after us 
to seeke them heere, they will be disappointed. We keep 
ourselves within our line. A just dependence upon and 
subjection to your Majestic, according to our charter, it is 
far from our hearts to disacknowledge. We would gladly 
do any thing within our power to purchase the continuance 
of your favorable aspect ; but it is a great unhappiness to 



A DISINTHEAIiLED NATIONAL LIFE. 177 

have no testimony of our loyalty offered but this, — to yield 
up our liberties, which are far dearer to us than our lives, 
and which we have willingly ventured our lives, and passed 
through many deaths, to obtain. 

" It was Job's excellency, when he sat as king among Ins 
people, that he was a father to the poor. A poor people, 
destitute of outward favor, wealth, and power, now cry unto 
their lord the king. May your Majesty regard their cause, 
and maintain their rio-ht ! it will stand anion 2; the marks of 
lasting honor to after-generations." * 

But what were these words of solemn warning and en- 
treaty to a man governed by the most degrading passions, 
in the midst of sycophant courtiers and flirting courtesans ? 
The commissioners must go on, and bring under this 
haughty, rebellious spirit. " There is fear," said the mon- 
arch, " of their breaking from all dependence on this nation." 
Indeed there is, your Majesty ; and God will use your des- 
potic folly to accomplish the very result which you seek 
to prevent by absolute power. 

The commissioners at lencr;th determined to brino; on a crisis 
in this controversy. They appointed a court, and summoned 
the colony to appear as defendant ; but the General Court 
of the colony " forbade the procedure. The commissioners 
refused to recede. The morning for the trial dawned : the 
parties had been summoned ; the commissioners were pre- 
paring to proceed with the cause ; when, by order of the 
court, a herald stepped forth, and, having sounded the trum- 
pet with due solemnity, made a public proclamation, in the 
name of the king and by authority of the charter, declaring 
to all the people of the colony, that in observance of their 
duty to God, to the king, and to their constituents, the Gen- 
eral Court could not suffer any to abet his Majesty's honor- 
able commissioners in their proceeding." f 

This was the first overt act of the Revolution, which would 

* Bancroft, ii. 80, 81. t Idem. ii. 85. 

23 



178 THE GEEAT REPUBLIC. 

require a hundred years to render lucid, formidable, and ef- 
fective. The king's letter rebuking the disloyalty of Massa- 
chusetts was to be considered. The General Court was con- 
vened, and the morning was spent in prayer. Six elders 
solemnly appealed to God for help in this great crisis. Sun- 
dry persons appeared disposed to yield to the king, whose dis- 
pleasure they greatly feared. " We must as well consider God's 
displeasure as the king's," said Willoughl^y. " Prerogative 
is as necessary as law," pleaded the friends of loyalty. " Pre- 
rogative is not above law," retorted the inflexible Hawthorne. 
Obedience was refused, and the grand issue once more settled. 
Some of the colonies were not, for the present, ready to acqui- 
esce in the resistance of Massachusetts. The people were in 
a transition state, and would not unhesitatingly follow their 
leaders. Feeble attempts were made to conciliate the crown ; 
but the general result was a much closer union, and a firmer 
advance in the progress of republican freedom. 

Fortunately for the colonies, the French war with England 
for final ascendency on this continent now commenced, and 
America could again grow by neglect. Commerce greatly 
enlarged ; and wealth from Spain and Italy, France and Hol- 
land, began to pour in upon the colonists. Portsmouth must 
have been very pi'osporous, as it could afford " sixty pounds 
a year to the college," and plenty of "schismatics to the 
Church;" while New Hampshire abounded "iu rebels to the 
king." New England rose in the elements of prosperity, 
until, in 1675, the population was estimated at fifty-five 
thousand people. 

But the grand controversy was now to be renewed. Charles 
II. had at length fidly determined upon the destruction of 
the great charter. '■ The colony resolved, if it must fill, to 
fall with dignity. Religion had been the motive of the set- 
tlement : religion was now its counsellor. The fervors of 
the most ardent devotion were kindled ; a more than usually 
solemn form of religious observance was adopted ; a synod 
of all the churches in Massachusetts was convened to in- 



A DISINTHRALLED NATIONAL LIFE. 179 

quire into the causes of the dangers of New-England liberty, 
and the mode of removino; the evils." * 

Messages, remonstrances, despotic edicts, prayers, and en- 
treaties followed each other. Magistrates, " their brethren 
the deputies," and the people, deliberated for two weeks 
prayerfully ; and the final decision came out in these memora- 
ble words : " Ought the government of Massachusetts submit 
to the pleasure of the court as to alteration of their charter? 
Submission would be an offence against the Majesty of 
heaven. The religion of the people of New England, and 
the court's pleasure, cannot consist together. By submission, 
Massachusetts will gain nothing. The court design an essen- 
tial alteration destructive to the vitals of the charter." "We 
ought not to act contrary to that way in which God hath 
owned our worthy predecessors, who in 1638, when there 
was a quo toarranto against the charter, durst not submit. 
In 1664, they did not submit to the commissioners. We, 
their successors, should walk in their steps, and so trust in 
the God of our fathers that we shall see his salvation. Sub- 
mission would gratify our adversaries, and grieve our friends. 
Our enemies know it will sound ill in the world for them to 
take away the liberties of a poor people of God in the wil- 
derness. A resignation will bring slavery upon us sooner 
than otherwise it would be, and will grieve our friends in 
other colonies, whose eyes are now upon New England, ex- 
pecting that the people there will not, through fear, give a 
pernicious example unto others. 

" Blind obedience to the pleasure of the court cannot be 
without great sin, and incurring the high displeasure of the 
King of kings. Submission would be contrary unto that 
which has been the unanimous advice of the ministers, given 
after a solemn day of prayer. The ministers of God in New 
England have more of the spirit of John Baptist in them, 
than now, when a storm hath overtaken them, to be reeds 
shaken with the wind. The priests were to be the first 
that set their foot in the waters, and there to stand till the 

* Bancroft, ii. 121. 



180 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

danger be past Of all men, tliej should be an example, 
to the Lord's people, of faith, courage, and constancy. Un- 
questionably, if the blessed Cotton, Hooker, Davenport, 
Mather, Shepherd, Mitchell, were now living, they would, 
as is evident from their printed books, say, ' Do not sin in 
giving away the inheritance of your fathers.' 

" Nor ought we submit without the consent of the body of 
the people. But the freemen and church-members through- 
out New England will never consent hereunto : therefore 
the government may not do it. 

" The civil liberties of New England are part of the inher- 
itance of their fathers ; and shall we give that inheritance 
away ? Is it objected that we shall be exposed to great suf- 
ferino-s ? Better suffer than sin. It is better to trust the 
God of our fithers than to put confidence in princes. If we 
suffer because we dare not comply with the wills of men 
against the will of God, we suffer in a good cause, and shall 
be accounted martyrs in the next generation and at the 
great day." Sublime words ! No language can reach a 
higher moral elevation. The act followed the words as the 
thunder follows the lightning. " The deputies consent not, 
but adhere to their former bills." 

The charter fell ; and there was left for the people no 
guaranty of their rights but their own inflexible integrity, 
and the sleepless vigilance of omnipotent justice. 

Let us now turn to the risini»: State of New York. In 
1683, the people in lawful assembly thus define their inalien- 
able rights. Let us read the whole passage from which we 
have made important extracts for their proper places : " Su- 
preme legislative power shall forever be and reside in the 
governor, council, and people met in general assembly. 
Every freeholder and freeman shall vote for representation 
without restraint. No freeman shall suffer but by judgment 
of his peers, and all trials shall be by a jury of twelve men. 
No tax shall be assessed, on any pretence whatever, but by 
the consent of the Assembly. No seaman or soldier shall be 



A DISINTHEALLED NATIONAL LIFE. 181 

quartered on the inhabitants against their will. No martial 
law shall exist. No person professing faith in God by Jesus 
Christ shall at any time be anyways disquieted, or ques- 
tioned for any difference of opinion." Leisler and Milborn, 
too rash in their assertions of freedom, expired on the gal- 
lows; but even the royalist assembly which consented to 
their execution, finally re-affirmed the rights of freemen in 
the strong words of the grand old declaration quoted above. 

Mark also the broad-minded statesmanship of the West- 
Jersey Quakers. In response to the attempt of the Duke 
of York to " extort customs of the ships ascending to New 
Jersey," they say, " The customs imposed by the government 
of New York are not a burden only, but a wrong. By what 
right are we thus used ? The King of England cannot take 
his subjects' goods without their consent. This is a home- 
born right, declared to be law by diverse statutes." They 
were heard, and they deserved to be. 

These people are very meek and harmless apparently; but 
let the minions of power tread upon them here in America, 
and they will soon feel the recoil of independent manhood. 
Byllinger assumes the right to nominate their lieutenant- 
governor ; and what do these Quakers do ? Why, simply 
change their constitution, bring forward the free ballot, and 
elect their own governor. They are Americans, not serfs. 

These may suffice as specimens of the conffict between 
liberty and prerogative, between the colonies and England, 
before the bloody war of the Revolution commenced. It 
was a contest of intellectual giants in the field of human 
rights. The victory seemed for a long time undetermined ; 
but the greatest of all facts in the political history of the 
world was, that, in a struggle of more than a hundred and 
fifty years, not a right belonging to freemen could be 
wrenched from these feeble colonists by any power which 
despotism could command. This proves incontestably that 
God himself had assumed control of the great mind-battle 
in progress on this continent. 



182 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

STRUGGLES OF RELIGIOUS AND CIVIL LIBERTY IN AMERICA. 

We may now recognize the fact, that collisions of mind 
were going on at the same time within the colonies. It 
might not be expected that the people would be equally 
clear in their apprehensions of personal and social rights, nor 
perfectly harmonious in their ideas of the best method of 
promoting them. They would not therefore advance simul- 
taneously toward the result intended by Providence, and 
which rose up but dimly before them. It would rather be 
highly probable that there would be many and serious dif- 
ferences among them, and that they would reveal alarming 
tendencies to anarchy on the one hand, and despotic rule on 
the other ; while some of the great wrongs of their father- 
land would seek to transfer themselves here, changing only 
the form and the objects of oppression. 

We have seen that the irrepressible desire for " freedom 
to worship God " was the grand impulse which colonized New 
England, and that God made use of the stern conscience, the 
experimental piety, and severe discipline, of Calvinistic Puri- 
tanism, to establish irrevocably, as against the assumptions of 
English despotism, the right to worship God in spirit and in 
truth in the New World. 

We have seen, however, that the Puritan spirit could not, 
without accessory force, carry forward Christian civilization 
quite to the point of universal toleration. 

We shall now see that civil and religious liberty act vitally 
upon each other; that they are so intimately related, that 
one cannot be perfect without the other. We shall there- 
fore see Puritanism in its transition state, struggling against 
its own reservations to realize the hio-liest idea of true 
liberty. This contest will reveal the sharpest antagonisms, 
but steady advance toward the goal of true national liberty 
and unity. 

In 1641, the great " model " of a free government ordained 
that " all the people of God who were orthodox in judg- 



A DISINTHRALLED NATIONAL LIFE. 183 

ment, and not scandalous in life, had full liberty to gather 
themselves into a church estate, to exercise all the ordi- 
nances of God, and from time to time to elect and ordain 
all their officers, provided they be able, pious, and ortho- 
dox." The rights of conscience could not be ignored in this 
grand fundamental document. There must be " liberty," " full 
liberty ; " but, alas ! it was only for the " orthodox." Thus far, 
but, for the present, no farther. 

Five years passed, and very clearly two distinct tenden- 
cies might be traced in the leading New-England colonies, 
— a disposition to an easier toleration of diverse opinions 
amongst Americans, and an increased strictness of judgment 
/against the encroachments of England. In 1646, the tone is 
apologetic, and quite liberal. Jeremy Taylor even, in an 
argument for liberty, had said, "Anabaptism is as much 
to be rooted out as any thing that is the greatest pest and 
nuisance to the public interest." The Puritans say that cer- 
tain wild and turbulent spirits, " whose conscience and reli- 
gion seemed only to set forth themselves, and raise contentions 
in the country, did provoke us to provide for our safety by 
a law that all such should take notice how unwelcome they 
should be unto us, either coming or staying. But for such 
as differ from us only in judgment, and live peaceably 
amongst us, — such have no cause to complain ; for it hath 
never been as yet put in execution against any of them, 
althouQ-h such are known to live among-st us." 

But, on the other hand, it was said, " If the king, or any 
party from him, should attempt any thing against this com- 
monwealth," it was the common duty " to spend estate and 
life and all, without scruple, in its defence." " If the Par- 
liament itself should hereafter be of a malignant spirit, then, 
if the colony have strength sufficient, it may withstand any 
authority from them to its hurt." This was the precise spirit 
of the Revolution ; and the attempt to conciliate nonconform- 
ist colonies aimed directly at the increase of strength in the 
incipient union, to provide for contingencies thus distinctly 



184 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

seen more than a hundred years before the war of blood 
actually began. 

Now " great questions about the authority of magistrates 
and the liberty of the people" come up. The "assistants" 
had become a little too exactinsr in the intervals of legisla- 
live sessions. " You will not be obeyed," said the people by 
the lips of Hawthorne. Parties began to reveal distinctness 
of organization. The popular party were jealous of the 
ministers; for they now favored the magistrates, which seemed 
to them the party of order. Eliot, however, the Apostle to 
the Indians, did not hesitate to show his dissent from his 
brethren, and very boldly came forward in defence of the 
people. He would have rotation in office, even against the 
mild and philanthropic Winthrop. The contests which fol- 
lowed revealed " a presbyterial spirit," of which thorough 
Puritanism was very much afraid. The voice of Winthrop 
was, as usual, soothing and instructive. " Civil liberty," he 
said, "is the proper end and object of authority; and we can- 
not subsist without it. It is a liberty to that only which is 
good, just, and honest. This liberty you are to stand for, 
with the hazard not only of your goods, but, if need be, of 
your lives. Whatsoever crosseth this is not authority, but a 
distemper thereof" He " retained the affectionate confi- 
dence of the colon3^" 

Liberty of conscience now came again boldly to the front. 
It was impossible that it should be forever in abeyance, 
shut up, as it had been in Massachusetts, to the simple right 
to be Congregational Puritans. " Why have not we a right, 
in this great, free country, to be Presbyterians, Episcopaliajis, 
Anabaptists, if we choose ? " some courageous people would 
say. And the courts began to show liberal tendencies. 
Winthrop said the rule of hospitality required more mod- 
eration and indulgence ; but the Calvinists sternly insisted 
that this tendency, if unrestrained, was sure " to eat out the 
power of godhness." 

In Plymouth, the proposition was boldly made " for a full 



A DISINTHRALLED NATIONAL LIFE. 185 

and free toleration of religion to all men, without excep- 
tion against Turk, Jew, Papist, Arian, Socinian, Familist, or 
any other." This was terrible to Winslow. He wrote to 
Winthrop, " You would have admired to have seen how 
sweet this carrion relished to the palate of most of them." 
Delay defeated the measure, and the battle moved back to 
Massachusetts. 

The ministers, in the mean time, stood firm against all 
encroachments of liberty from the mother-country. The 
people trusted them. " It had been as unnatural for a right 
New-England man -to live without an able ministry, as for 
a smith to work his iron without a fire." " The union be- 
tween the elders and the State could not, therefore, but 
become more intimate than ever ; and religion was vene- 
rated and cherished as the security against political subservi- 
ency." * 

It was now 1651; and Puritan intolerance, severely pressed 
by the advancing liberties of the age, became convulsive in 
its struggles to maintain its position. Saltonstall deplored 
these severities. If they had been liberal, they might have 
been "the eyes of God's people in England." Sir Henry 
Vane had wisely suggested that " the oppugners of the con- 
gregational way should not, from its own principles and 
practice, be taught to root it out." 

But Dudley said, " God forbid our love for the truth 
should be grown so cold, that we should tolerate errors ! I die 
no libertine." Cotton was inflexible. " Better tolerate hypo- 
crites and tares than thorns and briers." Ward responded, 
" Polypiety is the greatest impiety in the world. To say 
that men ought to have liberty of conscience is impious 
ignorance." " Religion," said Norton, " admits of no eccen- 
tric notions." 

In 1649, the people of Massachusetts resolved, quite 
against the will of their magistrates, to put their laws into 
the form of a complete code, with specified penalties affixed. 

* Bancroft, i. 443. 
24 



186 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

A committee of two magistrates, two ministers of the gos- 
pel, and two men directly from the people, accomplished this 
delicate task ; and the first published code of this colony 
went into full effect. Would it show a clear advance in the 
direction of liberty? No: it was yet too early for this. As 
might have been expected, when these old representatives 
of Puritanic justice put pen to paper, they went promptly 
back to what they deemed first principles, and adopted the 
sternest measures to check and utterly put down the weak- 
ness and vice of toleration. 

They had demanded for themselves simply liberty to do 
right. This they would concede to all others : nothing 
more, upon the peril of their souls. Hear them : " Albeit 
faith is not wrought by the sword, but the Word, never- 
theless, seeing that blasphemy of the true God cannot be 
excused by any ignorance or infirmity of human nature, 
no person in this jurisdiction, whether Christian or Pagan, 
shall wittingly and willingly presume to blaspheme his holy 
name, either by wilful or obstinate denying the true God, or 
his creation or government of the world ; or shall curse God ; 
or reproach the holy religion of God, as if it were but a 
public device to keep ignorant men in awe ; nor shall utter 
any other eminent kind of blasphemy of like nature or 
degree." If they did, the penalty was death. 

Hear them again ; they are terribly in earnest : "Although 
no human power be lord over the faith and consciences of 
men, yet because such as bring in damnable heresies, tend- 
ing to the subversion of the Christian fiiith, and destruction 
of the souls of men, ought duly to be restrained from such 
notorious impieties, any Christian within this jurisdiction, 
who shall go about to subvert or destroy the Christian faith 
and religion by broaching and maintaining any damnable 
heresies, as denying the immortality of the soul, or resurrec- 
tion of the body ; or any sin to be repented of in the regen- 
erate ; or any evil done by the outward man to be accounted 
sin ; or denying that Christ gave himself a ransom for our 



A DISINTHRALLED NATIONAL LIFE. 187 

sins; or shall affirm that we are not justified by his death 
and righteousness, but by the perfections of our own works ; 
or shall deny the morality of the fourth commandment ; or 
shall openly condemn or oppose the baptizing of infants; or 
shall purposely depart the congregation at the administra- 
tion of that ordinance ; or shall deny the ordinance of magis- 
tracy, or their lawful authority to make war, or to punish 
the outward breaches of the first table ; or shall endeavor 
to seduce others to any of the errors and heresies above 
mentioned," — any such were liable to banishment. 

"Jesuits were forbidden to enter the colony, and their 
second coming was punishable with death. Another law a 
few years after subjected to fine, whipping, banishment, and 
finally to death, any who denied the received books of the 
Old and New Testament to be the infallible word of God." * 

These were fearful crimes, in the main enormous heresies, 
beyond a doubt ; and the horror with which they were con- 
templated shows the depth and strength of religious princi- 
ple and feeling which controlled the spirits of these noble 
men. But assuming that civil force and legal penalties 
were for such sinners, and that only the good and the ortho- 
dox were entitled to the blessings of protection and citizen- 
ship, they reached the point where Puritan logic took on its 
most subtle and obstinate fallacy, and beyond which it could 
not pass. 

Arrests, whipping, imprisonment, banishment of Ana- 
baptists and Quakers upon pain of death, would be possible 
for a while longer. 

Religion, however, was not to be a subjugated element in 
New Eno;land : it was to be the o-uide of civil law and the 
paramount power of the land. " New England," the Puri- 
tan said, " was a religious plantation, not a plantation for 
trade. The profession of the purity of doctrine, worship, 
and devotion, was written on her forehead." " We all," said 
the constitution of the oldest confederacy, " came into these 

* Hildreth, i. 370. 



188 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

parts of Americca to enjoy the liberties of the gospel in 
purity and peace." " He that made religion as twelve, and 
the world as thirteen, had not the spirit of a true New- 
England man," " New England was the colony of con- 
science." These transcendent facts, united with convictions 
of exclusive rights, produced intolerance, but with "another 
spirit," under the conduct of Omniscience, would lead to the 
highest, noblest forms of organic freedom. 

Outside of New England, religious freedom was firmly and 
steadily advancing. But God had not changed the order of 
his providence. The sun of American liberty would rise in 
the east. The morning star to the Western continent sent 
forth a mild and beautiful radiance from the little common- 
wealth of Rhode Island. 

We may now distinctly see the character and mission of 
the Puritans. They were the Protestants of liberty. God 
had given them that singular combination of meekness and 
self-respect, of self-abnegation and sharply-defined individu- 
ality, which dashed aside the minions of power, while they 
humbly acknowledged the sacredness of the traditional 
authority under which they suffered all the horrors of 
martyrdom. They were bold, persistent protestants against 
the bitter wrongs inflicted by king, prelates, and parliament, 
but devoted friends of the crown and church of En o;! and. 
Imbued with the feelings and purposes of religious, irresisti- 
ble destiny, they rose up against the tyranny which op- 
pressed them in the Old World ; and they would resist to 
the death the same tyranny in the New\ With respect to 
the Church, they were not separatists ; with respect to the 
Government, they were royalists : but holding that God was 
above both Church and State, and that nothing belonged 
legitimately to the British Constitution which was in the 
slightest degree contrary to the Holy Bible, they appealed 
from cruel laws to the statutes from Heaven, and from 
tyrants to God. Puritanism was therefore Christian loyalty 
to God, and to British sovereignty subjected to the divine 



A DISINTHRALLED NATIONAL LIFE. 189 

will. As the Lord's people, they were his representatives : 
they would therefore arraign royalty for its crimes, and 
punish heretics. Precisely here Puritanism alone reached 
its ultimate power in behalf of liberty. 

ACCESSORY FORCES. 

Let us now observe how evidently the grasp and reach of 
that power which presided over the mental struggle that pre- 
ceded the War of Independence exceed every thing merely 
human. The combinations which seem to have most of 
finite man in them must be of materials which lie im- 
mediately about him, or at least are easily accessible, and 
whose relations are naturally and superficially suggested. 
When, however, a work is to be accomplished which is too 
profound and vast for delegated human wisdom, too good 
and important to be intrusted to human discretion, you 
may then see how wide the circle of power, how numerous 
and improbable, how distant and unlike each other, are the 
agencies and elements which produce the result that all 
sound minds must declare is the work of God. In nothing; 
is this more evident than in the great combinations now 
under review for the structure of the American Republic. 

From Italy, France, Spain, Holland, and England, God 
called up the men and movements for the discovery and 
colonization of the continent. Under his controlling hand, 
the strongest went down, and the weakest rose to powder : 
the first became last, and the last became first. From the 
ruling classes in England he brought forward "gentlemen" 
who would try the strength of aristocratic power for the for- 
mation of States in the South, and place within fair reach of 
liberty the grand antagonist force with which it was to grap- 
ple in deadly conflict, and over which it must finally triumph. 

From the middle and laboring classes of the same country 
he summoned the mind and the muscle which would illus- 
trate the force and sphere of man, as man, in conducting 



190 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

the grand movements of civilization belonging to all subse- 
quent ages and to all climes. He wrought up the solid 
qualities of the British yeomanry, by severest discipline, into 
the hardiest and boldest of pioneers. He imbued them with 
the sternest devotion to his righteous law, and thrust them 
out to found, by the action of conscience, a new England on 
the Western continent. Using one species of force as far 
and long as its spirit would permit, and moving liberty 
under its agency as far forward as the imperfect, undeveloped 
personal freedom of one class of free agents would allow, at 
precisely the right time he brought forward such other 
forces as the progress of his plans required. 

The first necessity of the Puritans Avas help to release 
themselves from traditional attachment to the Church of 
England as the religion of the realm established by law. 
They looked upon all the assumptions and exactions of 
Prelacy with feelings of indescribable horror ; but all these 
they regarded as perversions of the true Church of England : 
while upon the State policy, which assumed the care of the 
Church, and absorbed and controlled its power as vital to 
the government, they looked with superstitious reverence. 
" We separate," said the ministers, " not from the Church of 
England, but from its corruptions. We came away from the 
common prayer and ceremonies in our native land, where 
we suffered much for nonconformity. In this place of liberty 
we can not, will not, use them. Their imposition would be 
a sinful violation of the worship of God." 

The Separatists in England had shocked their ecclesiastical 
piety by denouncing not merely the wrongs of Prelacy, but 
the Church of England itself They battled "come-outers" 
with a zeal scarcely less furious than that with which they 
attacked the persecuting bishops and magistrates. But, in 
the course of this two-sided conflict, the thought must have 
forced itself home, that some day they might be compelled 
either to separation or guilty conformity. They were at- 
tempting the impossible. 



A DISINTHRALLED NATIONAL LIFE. 191 

The Pilgrims of Plymouth were in advance of the Massa- 
chusetts Puritans, and from them the leaven of church inde- 
pendence spread through all the colonies. The Congrega- 
tionalists of Salem and Boston were slowly moving towards 
outward separation ; while in reality they had already com- 
menced the formation of a State church of their own. 

Roger Williams thundered in their ears the crimes of their 
ungodly attempts at conformity on the one hand, and of ec- 
clesiastical tyranny on the other, and then retired to the 
companionship of savages, and finally to Rhode Island, that 
he might be free, and, in the hands of God, become the found- 
er of religious, and hence of civil, liberty in America. 

Providence, as we have seen, compelled the Catholics under 
Lord Baltimore to make contribution to the sum of forces 
gathering to sweep away the restrictions thrown around 
liberty. This must have been a most suggestive and per- 
plexing rebuke to intolerance in New England and Virginia. 
Romanism would nevertheless be historically true to its fun- 
damental principles; while the expediency of free worship 
would make a free and finally a Protestant State of Mary- 
land. Let us read again the words from the colony of Lord 
Baltimore, which laid the foundation of the present goodly 
structure upon which we look with so much pleasure : 
"No person within this province, professing to believe in 
Jesus Christ, shall be anyways troubled, molested, or dis- 
countenanced for his or her religion, or in the free exercise 
thereof" Notwithstanding the limitation implied here, Avhich 
might be used against infidels and atheists, these strong 
words went very far towards the exact expression of Ameri- 
can thought. 

The colony founded by the free States of Holland on the 
banks of the Hudson had brought with them much of the 
true spirit of the Reformation. They had not proceeded far 
in the growth of civil institutions before they thought proper 
to record a silent but powerful protest against the limitations 
of religious liberty rising up from Roman usurpations on the 



192 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

Continent, repeating themselves in church prerogatives in 
England, and now so strongly attempted in America. Let 
us consider the words included in the first great State- 
paper announced by the freemen of New York : " No per- 
son professing faith in God by Jesus Christ shall at any time 
be anyways disquieted or questioned for an}^ difference of 
opinion." Still nearer to the true American idea than the 
announcement from Maryland. The necessity of at least a 
profession of faith in God by Jesus Christ in order to secu- 
rity was apparently invidious; but they were not to be 
" questioned." 

Virginia, up to 1643, revealed the spirit of ecclesiastical 
bigotry and proscription from the side of Prelacy as Massa- 
chusetts had from Puritanism. " All ministers are to use the 
Liturgy, and to conform to the Church of England : the gov- 
ernor and council to compel nonconformists ' to depart the 
colony with all conveniency.' No Popish recusant is to hold 
any office ; and all Popish priests are to be sent out of the 
colony within five days after their arrival. Travelling and 
shooting on the sabbath are made punishable by fines." * 

It was not until 1776 that Virginia was emancipated from 
the legal domination of the Church of England. " By the 
influx of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians and other dissenters, 
especially Baptists, into the upper counties, the Episcopalians 
had become a minority of the people. But they still had a 
majority in the assembly ; and it was only after warm de- 
bates that Jefferson and George Mason procured the passage 
of a law repealing all the old disabling acts, legalizing all 
modes of worship, releasing dissenters from parish-rates, and 
suspending their collection until the next session, — a suspen- 
sion made perpetual in 1779, and the more readily as most 
of the clergymen of the Church of England were Tories." t 
So far, in this fundamental particular, was Virginia Ameri- 
canized ; and she was stronger because of it in the War of 
Independence. The battle was not ended, and we shall come 
to it aQ:ain. 

» llildreUi, i. 336. t Ibid., iii. 384. 



A DISINTHRALLED NATIONAL LIFE. 193 

In the great governmental theory formed for Carolina in 
1670 by Shaftesbury and Locke, it was provided that none 
could be freemen who did not acknowledge a God and the 
obligation of public worship. The Church of England was 
to be supported at the public expense, — a provision inserted 
by the proprietaries against the opinion of Locke, who wished 
to put all sects on the same footing. Any seven freemen, 
however, might form a church or religious society, to be 
recognized and tolerated, provided its members admitted the 
rightfulness of oaths, — a provision which excluded Quakers. 
By another provision, it was decreed that " every freeman of 
Carolina shall have absolute power and authority over his 
negro slaves, of what opinion and religion soever." 

In 1676, a colony of dissenters came to Carolina under 
Blake, the brother of the famous admiral. Twenty years 
thereafter, Joseph Blake was appointed governor by Arch- 
dale. He was a dissenter, and the little company became 
stronger by an accession from Massachusetts. They estab- 
lished Dorchester, twenty miles from Charleston ; and, in 
1698, John Cotton, son of the " famous Cotton," organized a 
Cono-resrational church in Charleston, which survived the 
War of the Revolution and the ecclesiastical proscription of 
Carolina and New Eno;land. 

In 1703, "the Churchmen, though not a third part of the 
inhabitants, happened to have a majority of one in the Assem- 
bly : " and " an act was passed requiring all members of As- 
sembly to take the sacrament according to the rites of the 
Church of England ; or, if they thought themselves unquali- 
fied for that solemnity, to subscribe a declaration of their 
adhesion to that church." The dissenters and Archdale re- 
monstrated ; but the proprietaries approved, and the Church 
of England was, in 1705, established by law. 

It was not till 1784, that, "by the second constitution of 
South Carolina, the ' Christian Protestant religion ' was de- 
clared to be the established religion of that State. All per- 
sons acknowledging one God, and a future state of rewards 

25 



194 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

and punishments, were to be freely tolerated : if, in addition, 
they held Christianity to be the true religion, and the Old 
and New Testaments to be inspired, they might form churches 
of their own, entitled to be admitted as a part of the Estab- 
lishment." * Thus much the dissenters had extracted from 
the prelatists by majorities led by great statesmen, after a 
long and desperate struggle. 

From the State of Georgia came a stronger influence in 
favor of liberty. Light from the clear mind of Oglethorpe 
travelled through the darkness of ages, and mingled at 
lensfth with the brio-htest revelations from heaven. 

About this period, the constitution in Massachusetts 
"seemed to guarantee the entire freedom of religious opin- 
ions, and the equality of all sects ; yet the legislature, being 
left with authority to compel the support of the ministers, and 
attendance on service, acted up to the full measure of their 
authority, inflicting heavy penalties for heterodox opinions." 
New Hampshire and Connecticut enacted similar laws ; and 
we pass out of the period of preparation and independence, 
leaving the Congregationalists in New England the standing 
order, and their form of religion established by law. 

We may now generalize by referring to another distinct 
reliurious movement. Georo;e Fox came forward to show 
the world " that the kingdom of God is within ; " that tyr- 
anny is of a man's own conceptions ; and that liberty is of 
the soul, and not of kings or nobles or commons ; tliat the 
grand bane of life is pride, and all artificial distinctions are 
of the Devil ; that prince and subjects, lords and beggars, are 
men, only men, suflering under a common bondage, with 
one only hope, and that must be revealed by the voice of 
God in the soul. For the rest, kings and protectors and 
presidents, who followed not the light within, were usurpers 
and tyrants. Men were free only as they were governed by 
God. Conscience was supreme, because it was the voice of 
God. Men might meditate, be still, suffer, die, but never 
obey a man against the inward monitor. 

* Hildreth, iii. 383. 



A DISINTHEALLED NATIONAL LIFE. 195 

There was room amid the upheavals of the age for such 
a man as this. How anxiously the people asked, " Is this the 
light for which I have been straining my darkened sight ? 
Is it true that I can bid adieu to these bewildering worldly 
fictions, renounce and defy the usurpations of tyrants, and 
retire into myself, and find rest ? " They felt moved to try it. 
In vast throngs they did; and presently the sacrifice was 
ready : the victims of fines, imprisonments, banishment, and 
torture, were innumerable. And what lessons of endurance 
for conscience' sake they taught the age and the world ! 
How the moral rose above the physical amid the serene 
composure of passive suffering and tranquil martyrdom ! 
How mightily the levelling power of justice wrought through 
the "quietism" of conscious right to dash down the proud 
pretenders to despotic power, and lift up the masses to the 
dignity of manhood ! 

God would allow even their fanaticism to illustrate their 
virtues ; their tortures and dying to rebuke the madness of 
oppression ; and finally their cruel exile to bring to America 
the doctrine of equal rights, and found States to illustrate 
the principles and reveal the weaknesses of a ,pure democ- 
racy. He would permit them to become thorns in the sides 
of Puritan and Prelatical bigotry and proscription, until 
enough of them were murdered, and the rest were hurled 
away, to show that another inspiration was needed to move 
the world forward to the full realization of the divine idea of 
human freedom. They laid the foundations of religious lib- 
erty in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, New Jersey, and Dela- 
ware. They fulfilled their mission, took their place in history 
as warnings to tyrants, and against worldly folly and corrup- 
tion, and waited to be absorbed into the life of the nation 
they had so powerfully helped to form. Christian liberty 
must be aggressive : Friends could not be aggressive, and 
they could lead freedom no farther. 

Let it now be asked whether the infidel, worldly spirit is 
not equal to this task ; whether this power may not take up 



196 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

liberty where the chief rehgious movements of the prepara- 
tory period have left it, and complete the release of the na- 
tional life, and the thorough Americanization of our foreign 
and home-born population. It shall have a fair opportunity 
to make the experiment. God will allow it to do its best, 
under the most favorable auspices, by the hand of its most 
brilliant representative man. 

From the same England whence came the Prelatists, the 
Papists, the Puritans, and the Quakers, later in the struggle 
came Thomas Paine to sound the blast of freedom so loud 
and clear, that the whole civilized world must hear it. He 
seemed the appointed leader of the Revolution. He was 
voice for the dumb, courage for the timid, daring and defi- 
ance for the handful of the oppressed against the host of 
their oppressors. 

But his career was brief He wrote of " common sense," 
and " the rights of man " as a being of time merely, a crea- 
ture of accident. He abridged the scope of these rights 
from the infinite to the finite, from the eternal to the tem- 
poral, from the grand whole of being to a miserable frag- 
ment. He found himself without adequate motives and 
power. He was a man. — a mere man ; at length, a very 
vile man. He could teach the people to hate ; but there was 
no organizing power in hatred. They idolized, and then de- 
spised him. When they saw that he would leave them with 
" no hope, and without God in the world," they broke away 
from him. His rage was terrible, but impotent. He fled 
from the land of the Bible to the land of infidelity like a suf- 
fering demon seeking an easier hell. He had burst upon 
the world a brilliant luminary, and suddenly went out amid 
the horrors of a darkness that could be felt. He showed how 
far an infidel, worldly spirit could carry liberty, attracted the 
gaze of anxious multitudes, scoffed, and died. 

Education must seek its place among the accessory forces 
of liberty in the earlier period of our nation's history. A 
high degree of culture had appeared in the vigorous intel- 



A DISINTHRALLED NATIONAL LIFE. 197 

lects of the legislators and ministers of the colonies. It 
would be difficult to find more sturdy thinkers, more skilful 
dialecticians, or more complete masters of language, than the 
leading statesmen and divines of the age under review. 

But a new race was rising up. Vigorous, daring young 
Americans were coming upon the stage. What would be the 
direction of their minds under the stimulating power of free- 
dom ? It was plain, they must be educated ; but how and 
where ? True, tlie sons of wealth might be sent home to 
college ; but this would tend to produce a privileged class, 
while the great mass of the rising generation would grow 
up in stubborn, dangerous ignorance. America must have 
her own institutions of learning;. 

As early as 1621, the London Company undertook "to 
establish plans of education " in Virginia. " The Bishop of 
London collected and paid a thousand pounds towards a 
university ; which, like the several churches of the colony 
was liberally endowed with domains." * 

Seminaries of learning were not numerous in the South ; 
but they were sufficient to show the intelligent enterprise of 
the great patrons of learning in the age of colonization ; and 
coming; in as tributaries to the culture of American children 
educated in England, and the drilling of here and there a 
family by a thoughtful, cultivated mother at home, they helped 
to save the land from the crimes and desolations of general 
ignorance. 

In New England, the movement for general education was 
thoroughly characteristic. In 1636, "six years after the ar- 
rival of Winthrop, the General Court voted a sum equal to 
a 3'ear's rate of the whole colony towards the erection of a 
college. In 1638, John Harvard bequeathed to the college 
one-half of his estate and all his library." f It was hence 
called Harvard College. " The infant institution was a fa- 
vorite. Connecticut and Plymouth, and the towns in the east^ 
often contributed little offerings to promote its success; the 

* Bancroft, i. 179. t Ibid., i. 459. 



198 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

gift of the rent of a ferry was a proof of the care of the 
State ; and once, at least, every family in each of the colonies 
gave to the college at Cambridge twelve pence, or a peck of 
corn, or its valne in unadulterated wampumpeag ; while the 
magistrates and wealthier men were profuse in their liberal- 
ity. The college, in return, exerted a powerful influence in 
forming the earlier character of the country." * 

But it was not college-learning only that the liberal-minded 
Puritans sought to promote. Custom, and finally law, pro- 
vided that " none of the brethren shall suffer so much bar- 
barism in their families as not to teach their children and 
apprentices so much learning as may enable them perfectly 
to read the Eni'-lish tonojue." * 

One most important purpose for which they insisted upon 
general education appears in their venerable code in quaint 
and characteristic style : " It being one chief project of that 
old deluder, Sathan, to keep men from the knowledge of the 
Scriptures, as in former times keeping them in an unknown 
tongue, so in these latter times by persuading men from the 
use of tongues, so that, at least, the true sense and meaning 
of the original might be clouded with false glosses of saint- 
seeming deceivers, and that learning might not be buried in 
the graves of our fathers," it was ordered " that evei'y town- 
ship, after the Lord hath increased them to the number of 
fifty householders, shall appoint one to teach all children to 
write and read ; and, when any town shall increase to the 
number of one hundred families, they shall set up a gram- 
mar-school, the masters thereof being able to instruct youth 
so far as they may be fitted for the university." The colonies 
of Connecticut, Plymouth, and New Haven, enacted the same 
law. After some rather plain promptings from Massachu- 
setts, " the General Court of Plymouth," in 1G57, required by 
law " the towns to tax themselves for the support of minis- 
ters and grammar-schools." 

Thus we discover the foundation of the New-England 

* Bancroft, i. 459. 



A DlSINTilllALLED NATIONAL LIFE. 199 

common-school system, which has risen to be its strength and 
its glory. It had due relation to the grammar-school and 
the university ; but " every child as it was born into the 
world was lifted from the earth by the genius of the country, 
and, in statutes of the land, received as its birthright a pledge 
of the public care for its morals and its mind." * 

Rhode Island did not promptly unite with other New- 
Eno;land colonies in this ij-reat movement. The zeal of Roijer 
Williams and his people for pure religion made tlicm sus- 
picious of too much of the human, especially in religious 
education, and carried them into the region of superstition, 
leading them to expect direct instruction from heaven which 
would supersede the human and prevent the peril. Doubt- 
less the scholarly old Puritans had some reference to these 
good people when they wrote of " saint-seeming deceivers." 

Within the period now before us, in 1696, Maryland passed 
a law establishing free schools. The measures adopted for 
the support of the system did not, however, go into proper 
effect until 1723. The arrangements were liberal, and men 
were appointed to employ " good schoolmasters, members of 
the Church of England, men of pious and exemplary lives 
and conversation, and capable of teaching well the grammar, 
good writing, and the mathematics, if such can conveniently 
be got." 

These were apparently small beginnings ; but they were 
of the most vital importance. They indicate a vigorous ele- 
ment of national strength, to be developed chiefly in the 
Northern States. 

Powerful and perpetual, the mission of education was 
not, however, alone to complete the liberation of mind and 
the constitution of freedom. The bondas-e of the Puritan 

o 

was in his conscience, and this mere human learning could 
not reach. As an accessory force, education had done its 
best, and could not emancipate even the New-England mind 
from the power of bigotry and public injustice. 

* Baucroft, i. 458, 459. 



200 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 



A NEW INSPIRATION. 



Recognizing, as historical fidelity has compelled us to do, 
the great facts of the limitation, if not the exhaustion, of all 
the important forces which have passed before us, it is time to 
bring prominently forward that power, which, released from 
outward restrictions, and brought into thorough legitimate 
action, would complete the liberation of the American mind, 
and, by vitalizing and organizing liberty, prepare it for its 
mission of power among men. 

The Bible was the great book of the Puritans. They 
received it as the revelation of God, and would allow no man 
to shut it, or wrest it from them. It was everywhere with 
them. In its light they undertook to form their system of 
government, their cliurches, and their schools. Whatever 
of traditional bigotry they had inherited, or of proscriptive 
exclusiveness had arisen from the recoil of their free spirits 
from the assaults of persecution, the pure truth of the Bible 
w^ould work quietly, but steadily and bravely, against it. 
Their tendency to rigid formalism it would antagonize ; and, 
so far as the free consent and the trusting faith of individuals 
would allow, it would bring to their souls the power of the 
atonement, and the new life " born of the Spirit." 

To a large extent, this power from above pervaded the 
masses, and gave them the right to say, " This is the victory 
that overcometh the world, even our faith." Sufficient intro- 
version, and a clear, strong development of this force, would 
have given them liberty completed : undue attention to the 
external and to the outward battles of technical Puritanism 
brought them to their limits, and demanded help. 

Many of the Puritans were Presbyterians. They came in 
considerable numbers about the conunencement of the civil 
war in England, and at the period of the Restoration. The 
Dutch who began the settlement of New York were Pres- 
byterians; the Germans who came into Pennsylvania and 
Northern Virginia were generally Presbyterians; the IIu- 



A DISINTHRALLED NATIONAL LIFE. 201 

guenots from France were nearly all Calvinists and Presby- 
terians. All these had separate organizations corresponding 
with their traditions in the Old World. They assumed dif- 
ferent names accordingly, but were ail Presbyterian in dis- 
tinction from Episcopal. From Scotland and Ireland came 
multitudes of very devout but very rigid Presbyterians. 
The first presbytery was organized in Philadelphia in 1705. 
In these incipient churches was much of the indomitable, 
unconquerable spirit of the Scotch Presbyterians, but also the 
devout glowing piety of John Knox and the martyr-heroes 
of the Reformation. 

Here we identify again the vital power which liberated 
the soul from the fetters of sin, and which bore heavily 
against the bondage of Puritanism. Practically independent 
of all limitations, the great preachers and noble laymen of 
this church moved into the future with the blast of freedom 
sounding from their lips ; and extensive revivals, and the con- 
sequent extension of liberty, showed that from this great 
evangelical communion would come large accessions to the 
common vital power which would emancipate the nation. 

The Episcopal Church, trammelled by State prerogatives, 
and fearfully restricted by formalism and aristocratic preten- 
sions, nevertheless bore in its bosom much of the life of God, 
a part of which had come down from the days of Cranmer 
and Latimer, Burnet and Butler, but a much larger propor- 
tion of which came from the great revival of the eighteenth 
century. Its extremes would repel each other; but the 
church of the Wesleys, of Oglethorpe, and of Bishops White 
and Hobart, would make large contributions to the aggre- 
gation of spiritual power which would contend mightily with 
the intolerance of caste, and give most effective aid to the 
nation stru<J!;ii;lino; to be free. 

The life of God in the soul of the devout Quaker wrought 
powerfully on the same side. 

The Baptists, in their fervent piety and native independ- 
ence, contained in large measure the spirit which was des- 



202 THE GREAT IlErULLIC. 

tined to achieve completed liberty for tlie American nation. 
They were at first chiefly from Wales, then from England 
and the Continent ; but, from whatever country they came, 
they loved liberty. If there were tendencies to exclusive- 
ness in any of their doctrines and their single mode of bap- 
tism, these were practically overcome by the deep and ear- 
nest spirit of piety, which, by inevitable laws, connected them 
with the goodly fellowship of believers everywhere, and with 
the freedom-side of all the great controversies of Church and 
State. 

The great Roger Williams, though, as we have seen, 
deemed irreo;ular in his views and acts with reg-ard to the 
baptismal succession, was nevertheless, in a strong sense, a 
Baptist. Concerning him and his brethren. Chief Justice 
Story said, " In the code of laws established by them in 
Rhode Island, we read, for the first time since Christianity 
ascended the throne of the Ctesars, the declaration that con- 
science should be free, and men should not be punished for 
worshipping God in the way they were persuaded he re- 
quires." 

Let me now be distinctly understood. Ecclesiastical organ- 
izations may, in their peculiar structure and sectarian cast, 
be for or against the doctrines of liberty ; but, in the lib- 
erty wherewith Christ hath made them free, they are not 
sectarian, they are not exclusive. This we have identified 
in all as the common life-force l)y which God intended to 
organize, perfect, and develop civil and religious freedom on 
this continent for the world. Its origin was divine, its chan- 
nel the Bible, and its scope the world. There is yet another 
grand historical development of this connnon life-force of the 
Great Republic. 

Now let us look to England again. " Man's extremity," says 
Augustine, " is God's opportunity." " While Seeker was de- 
ploring the demoralization of England, as threatening to 
' become absolutely fatal,' and the aged Burnet saw ' immi- 
nent ruin hanging over the Church' and over the whole 



A DISINTHllALLED NATIONAL LIFE. 203 

Reformation ; while Watts was writing that ' religion was 
dying in the world/ and Butler, that ' it had come to be taken 
for granted that Christianity was no longer a subject of in- 
quiry, but at length was discovered to be fictitious;' when, 
in fine, the Anglican Church had become ' an ecclesiastical 
system, under which the people of England had lapsed into 
heathenism, and nonconformity was rapidly in course to be 
found nowhere but in books ; ' and meanwhile, across the 
Channel, rationalistic infidelity was invading the strongholds 
of the Reformation, and the French philosophers were spread- 
ing moral contagion through Europe, — God was preparing 
the means, apparently disconnected, but providentially coinci- 
dent, which were to resuscitate the 'dying' faith, and intro- 
duce the era of modern evangelism in the Protestant world."* 
From Oxford came an indigent student, who, by faith in 
Jesus, after" lying prostrate on the ground for whole days in 
silent or vocal prayer, had received a new life from heaven. 
This was George Whitefield, soon to become the greatest 
preacher of his age. His rebukes of sin in high places were 
too scathing, and his appeals to the conscience too over- 
whelming, for the churches: and it was well; for no church 
could hold his audiences. Ten, fifteen, and even twenty 
thousand anxious human beings gathered in the fields to 
hear from his lips the way of salvation by faith. The Holy 
Spirit fired his great soul with a zeal which no ocean or con- 
tinent could limit. Scarcely had the echoes of his voice died 
away in England before it broke upon the ears of New Eng- 
land, rousing the slumbering "orthodoxy" of " the standing 
order," and pouring a new life-current through the masses 
from Maine to Georgia. Back and forward over the ocean 
and the continents this wonderful man flew like the wind, 
until it seemed that he was the very angel of the Apoca- 
lypse, " having the everlasting gospel to preach unto men." 

This was the very spirit which moved the great Edwards, 
and the multitudes around him, durino; "the acreat awaken- 
iijg ; " which gave such zeal and holy power to Payson and 

* Stevens's History of Methodism, i. 33. 



204 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

the Tennants, causing thousands to cry out for mercy, and 
then to triumph in " the blood of the Lamb." These great 
revivalists were of the school of Calvin in divinity : and 
thus God brought the powerful princij)le of " soul-liberty" to 
wrestle with the assumed limitations of the will in the same 
individuals; and the limitations, however firmly guarded by 
careful logic, opposed no effective resistance to the power of 
a free gospel and a triumphant faith. Whatever might be the 
metaphysics of freedom, and whatever its relations to God's 
plans, it was nevertheless a great fact, which was now rapidly 
translating itself into action, and opening a new world to the 
American mind. 

A little English boy had been snatched from the upper 
window of a house in flames. His mother had, with special 
devotion and remarkable grasp of intellect, consecrated him 
henceforth to God. He had become a student at Oxford, 
and then an awakened sinner, and then a missionary to 
Georgia, " to convert the Indians," as he supposed, but, in 
God's purposes, to bring him into communication with Peter 
Bolder, and the spirit of deep and living German piety. 
He was at length at home a new man, and before the gath- 
ered multitudes in groves and fields, proclaiming "liberty to 
the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that 
are bound." 

The whole kingdom was moved. The Anglican Church 
received a new infusion of spiritual life ; the missionary spirit 
was roused. Wesley was in Ireland. Many received the word 
which was in demonstration of the "Spirit and of power." 
Barbara Heck and Philip Kmbury were among them. They 
had fled from Romish persecutions in the Palatinate in 
Germany; but God brought them thence in lime to receive 
the new life through the labors of this great evangelist. 
And they were soon in John Street, New York. Humbly 
they sought to win the approbation of Heaven, and the souls 
of men, by proclaiming the " liberty wherewith Christ had 
made them free." In October, 17G6, these servants of the 



A DISINTHRALLED NATIONAL LIFE. 205 

Most High God founded a church, which would send its life 
through the new nation, and, in a century, number more 
than a million of souls. 

Here was a form of the Reformation which belonged to 
the universal religion. No restrictions of creed or of spirit 
shut it up in cloisters, bound it in conscience, or erected a 
barrier between it and the mass of mankind. It moved 
over the oceans, and out into the forests ; proclaimed its glad 
tidings in the West Indies, and amid the Puritans in New 
England. At length there appeared a man at its head, a 
grand pioneer bishop, directing its heralds, and organizing 
its bands for the conquest of the world. Asbury was in 
his saddle, moving from city to city, from town to country, 
over mountains and rivers, far out into the frontier, pro- 
claiming the glorious liberty of redemption, and gathering 
the weeping throngs into the fold of the Redeemer. 

Now, precisely here is the mistake of historians. They 
regard religion as a thing by itself; the great revivals under 
Whitefield and Edw\ards, Asbury and Payson, as isolated 
spiritual movements, having no connection with the great 
events of national history : whereas they constitute the 
very soul of civil life and political development. 

When Whitefield and Jesse Lee moved through New Eng- 
land, they were the heralds of freedom. They bore a new 
revelation to the Puritan mind, which at first roused the 
most obstinate resistance, but soon quickened the inner life, 
and extended it to the life of the State ; at length sweeping 
away every vestige of intolerance, and revealing the mar- 
vellous identity of the liberty for which the Pilgrims fled to 
America, which honest Episcopalians, Quakers, Baptists, and 
Methodists were demanding at their hands, and which Christ 
came to proclaim to universal man. 

When Asbury and Coke and Strawbridge opened the 
batteries of freedom in Maryland, they swept down the re- 
strictions which Romanism had thrown around the con- 
science, and proclaimed emancipation from the fetters of 



206 '-THE GREAT KEPUBLIC. 

priest-craft. As they moved through Virginia and the Car- 
olinas, they sounded the death-knell of Prelatical tyranny, 
and thundered in the ears of oppressors the crime of 
slavery. 

" The fervid spirit of Edwards, seeing with Bossuet, in all 
history, only the ' history of redemption,' dreamed, in his 
New-England retirement, of a millennium which was to 
dawn in the New World, and thence burst upon the nations, 
and irradiate the globe." * 

' Recognizing this spirit of evangelization as truly abroad 
upon its mission of love and liberating power. Dr. Baird 
says, " No American Christian who takes a comprehensive 
view of the progress of religion in his country, and con- 
siders how wonderfully the means and instrumentalities em- 
ploj'ed are adapted to the extent and the wants of that 
country, can hesitate for a moment to bless God for having, 
in his mercy, provided them all. Nor will he fail to recog- 
nize in the Methodist economy, as well as in the zeal, the 
devoted piety, and the efficiency of its ministry, one of 
the most powerful elements in the religious prosperity of the 
United States, as well as one of the firmest pillars of their 
civil and political institutions." f 

This divine afflatus, limited, as we have shown, to no age 
or sect or clime, was powerful and evident in the days of 
which we write. 

Liberty received its new inspiration from the baptisms 
of love which came in the fresh evano;elism of the ":reat 
Reformation, and moved out to become truly national in the 
American Republic. 

* Stevens's Methodist-Episcopal Church, i. 18. 
t Baird 's Religion in America, p. 497. 



CHAPTER 11. 

THE TIME CHOSEN SHOWS THE PROVIDENTIAL ADVENT 
OF THE NATIONAL LIFE. 

"America is therefore the hvnd of the future, where, in the ages that lie before us, the 
burden of the world's history shall reveal itself. It is the land of desire for all who are 
weary of the historical lumber-room of old Europe." — Hegel. 

" Westward the cour.-e of empire takes its way." — Bkkkelet. 

It is to be observed that God does not make abrupt and 
arbitrary changes in the social state, as man would fre- 
quently prefer to do. He does not produce a tree before 
the seed, the germ, and the growth ; no more does he sud- 
denly project upon the world a completed form of civil and 
political order. With much longer delay than we can com- 
prehend, through the conflicts of ages he carries truth on to 
its destination in the future. Sometimes it appears spar- 
kling upon the surface like the gurgling mountain rill, reveal- 
ing its fertilizing power by the freshness of the verdure 
upon its banks ; and then, plunging from sight amid arid 
sands and desert wastes, it appears again with accumulated 
power farther on towards the great ocean. 

Slowly, therefore, it might be expected the great prepara- 
tions for a new era of freedom would move on under the 
guidance of Providence ; and in the fulness of time the 
plans of God Avould be evident to men. As numerous 
attempts had sufficiently shown, it was rashness in man to 
precipitate events. The result could only be the exposure of 
human folly, and the destruction of hopes based upon mere 
finite discretion and power ; but God could use even these 
experiments and calamities to correct the mistakes of men. 

207 



208 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 



HISTORICAL CYCLES MUST PRECEDE. 

Time must be allowed for human depravity to work out its 
legitimate results. This was realized in the antediluvian age ; 
and the desolations of the Flood were the appropriate termi- 
nation of the first grand epoch of human madness and sin. 

The moral and political force of learning and the arts 
must be accurately measured ; and this occurred in the 
history of Greece, under the genius of Aristotle, Theinis- 
tocles, and Solon. 

The irresistible energy of the sword must work out its 
results ; and this was done in the life of Rome. 

The competency of a symbolic religion must be ascer- 
tained; and this had been seen in the extraordinary develop- 
ment of the Hebrew institutes and people, reaching back to 
the infancy of the race. 

Old and decaying systems of human wisdom and folly 
must be crumbled to atoms to make way for the foundations 
of modern civilization ; and this was achieved by the wander- 
ing, barbarous hordes of Tamerlane and Gengis Khan. 

The age of chivalry had reached its climax and spent its 
force in the wild and fiery crusades to the Holy Land. 

Feudal rights and lordly pretensions had expired under 
the agency of their own usurpations and the rising power of 
the masses. 

Spiritual and temporal despotism had tried their strength, 
separately and combined, in grappling with the inherent 
rights of man ; and all questions of human progress had been 
answered by the aggrandizement of the sovereign alone. 

Compromise between the most concentrated individualism 
and the rising power of the people had done its best, and 
rapidly completed its circle back to the unmitigated tyranny 
in which it had its origin. 

Then the time had come for projecting upon the plane of 
human vision the grand experiment of government by the 
people. Had it been earlier, its appeal to enlightened reason 
would have been far less conclusive and powerful. 



. PEOVIDENTIAL ADVENT OF THE NATIONAL LIFE. 209 

DESPOTIC GOVERNMENTS AND IMPERISHABLE IDEAS. 

The patriarchal principle arises naturally out of the con- 
stitution of the human mind and the existence of family. 
It was adapted to a perfect, moral condition. Had this con- 
tinued, it would undoubtedly have remained, as it was, at 
first, God's mode of conducting a universal theocracy. This 
primitive, simple, and charming method of order gave place 
to monarchy, which, under the power of extending depravity, 
became the vilest usurpation. 

But it was still a favorite method, and m'ust be tried over 
and over again. Its natural development in one form, it was 
assumed, could not be accepted as demonstration of its 
inadequacy in another. Its growth and extension gave it 
power to command respect, and win the confidence of vast 
generations of men ; while its violent abuses, its revolutions 
and decay, it was presumed, were attributable to accidental 
defects in men, or obtrusive modifying circumstances over 
which it would be possible for superior wisdom to exert 
adequate control. 

Time was necessary to allow it to prove historically its 
inadequacy to solve the great political problems ever return- 
ing to perplex the thoughtful and the wise. It must fail, in 
the hands of numberless dynasties, in all its endless variety 
of forms, with every conceivable advantage, in order to 
loosen its hold upon the confidence of men. Its popular 
power must be virtually destroyed to make way for the true 
principle of civil order, upon a scale sufficiently large to 
insure its success. 

To understand this historical teaching, it must be remem- 
bered that ideas are imperishable. Individuals and nations 
pass away; but their acts remain. In numberless forms, their 
acquisitions of experience and philosophy diffuse themselves 
through the social fabric, and descend with their precise and 
legitimate power amid the antagonisms of the future. 

This result does not depend upon historical organizations. 

27 



210 THE GREAT REPFBLIC. . 

It requires no authorized supervision of facts or principles 
to preserve them. It is in their nature to perpetuate them- 
selves. New generations, as they arise, do not determine the 
influences which shall surround them, nor the point in 
civilization at which they will commence their own experi- 
ments : they are themselves, in soul, body, and spirit, the 
product and embodiment of the past. To this constitu- 
tional provision may be added the influence of recorded and 
contemporaneous history. 

It is thus that we account for the traditional and philo- 
sophical forces which operate upon the social order from the 
vast cycles of the past, amid the dissolutions of time and 
the decay of nations ; and thus that we explain the tedious 
but ultimately effectual lessons of wisdom which the world 
learns from the records of folly. 

We may therefore understand that time had been allowed 
for the school of ages, and a notable preparation for the in- 
troduction of a new social order was evolved from the chaos 
of anarchy and despotism. 

Indications of the grand fundamental fact, that the power 
of government resides in the people, accordingly appeared in 
the history of Providence and the developments of enlpirical 
systems ; but the great decisive movement of freedom must 
bide its time. The impression of its necessity must be 
profound and pervading before its advent into the scenes of 
battle through which it must pass : and just time enough for 
this had elapsed, when it appeared to assert its right to do- 
minion over the destinies of men ; not immediate, universal 
dominion, — certainly not in its outward forms ; for we are 
not of the number who believe that formal republicanism 
has any natural or divine right to take forcible possession of 
the world. And yet we believe fully that its mission is uni- 
versal. It is to be the visible or invisible animus which shall 
inhabit the body politic of all the peoples under the sun ; 
and, for precisely the reason that its advance to rank and 
power must be gradual, it must for ages co-exist with other 
and anta(j;onist forms. 



PROVIDENTIAL ADVENT OP THE NATIONAL LIFE. 211 
THE GRAND CRISIS OF HISTORY. 

But as the reality of government by the people could not 
have earlier moved up to its central position among the 
powers of the earth, so neither could it have been longer 
delayed without an entire change in the fundamental laws 
of human progress and incalculable harm to the race. When 
the combinations began to appear for the organization of the 
American Republic, tliere was nothing for dissatisfied intellect 
to take hold of. All other forms had been tried, and proved 
wholly unsatisfactory. Without something clearly in ad- 
vance of former experiments, the action of liberty must 
have recoiled upon itself; and erratic and irrepressible vio- 
lence must have crushed the hopes and changed the destinies 
of millions. 

God, who had guided the elements and superintended the 
preparations of more than five thousand years, knew well the 
grand crisis in which the hopes of longing, restless minds 
must pass over to another and more enduring reliance. 

Besides, for the great mission of a model Republic, there 
was none too much time. How much time in the great 
cycles of the world's future remained, certainly none but 
Omniscience could tell. We are not, however, of the number 
convinced by the hypothesis, that we are now in the middle 
period of the world's history. The rising, towering grandeur 
of moral ideas and events indicates to us rather the strong 
probability that the world has not yet passed its vigorous 
youth ; and precisely this is what we mean by the position, 
that, for the mission of the great model Republic, there was 
none too much time. During its infancy, not half its power 
to bless mankind could appear. Immense as are its advan- 
tages during the development of its minority, its grand 
providential task must be accomplished after it reaches its 
majority. 

Not the lofty purposes of government merely, but the ris- 
ing power of every other force upon which the destiny of 



212. THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

the race depends, indicates a vast sweep of redeeming agen- 
cies in the world's future for the realization of the divine 
idea in the creation and the atonement. 

It was evident that some great crisis in history was at 
hand. Men were in death-struggles as the representatives 
of the dying past and the oncoming future. There was yet 
vitality enough in tyranny to make a formidable effort to 
tighten its grasp of power in England and in America. 

It was confident of success. It had. yet at command a 
vast enginery of torture and coercion. It could avail itself 
of ecclesiastical pains and penalties. It had all the advan- 
tage of an ancient aristocracy and a splendid hereditary 
nobility. Its attractions included all the pomp and circum- 
stance of a State-religion, and the gorgeous splendor of 
courts and courtiers, decorations and crowns. The enormous 
wealth of ages had accumulated in the coffers of the govern- 
ino; classes. Learninor and the arts gathered around the seat 
of despotic power. A defiant military spirit had emerged 
from wars with Continental armies. A new energy had ap- 
peared upon the sea. The " invincible Armada " had been 
scattered to the winds, and England was rising to greatness 
as a maritime power. Men of rare gifts had risen up to 
execute the commands of royalty, while defeated liberty 
was branded with the crime of reg^icide. 

All this appeared, to bring up to their highest point of in- 
solence the usurpations which insulted and defied the yearn- 
ings of the people for freedom. Human nature could endure 
the suspense no longer. The grand crisis had come. 

The life of a new nation had been long waiting for its in- 
carnation. The birth-throes of a century announced its 
advent. God revealed his attendant guardian-power, and 
exalted the new-born prince, through its baptisms of blood, 
to a dominion before unknown in the history of the world. 



CHAPTER III. 

WAR INDICATES AN HEROIC NATIONAL LIFE. 

" For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own 
arm save them ; but Thy right hand, and Thine arm, and the light of Thy countenance, 
because Thou hadst a favor unto them." — Ps. xliv. 

If the encroachments of power were to be resisted, who 
were to do it ? There was no king and council or parlia- 
ment to declare war ; to say, " Thus far shalt thou come, and 
no farther." The people had already said and done enough 
to show that they felt themselves to be in possession of rights 
which no power on earth might defy with impunity. They 
began to feel and act like freemen ; like a nation having at 
least the right and the duty of self-defence. Precisely what 
it meant they seem not to have inquired ; but individuals, 
towns, colonies, felt the throbbings of a new life. Why should 
they all feel so much alike ? Why should it be just as im- 
possible to enforce stamp-duties in one portion of America 
as in another ? Why should the attempt to land cargoes of 
tea, the test of the great question of taxation without repre- 
sentation, produce the same uprising of the people, and call 
out the imperious " No " in Boston and New York and Balti- 
more and Charleston ? Evidently there was a strange unity 
manifesting itself under the action of Providence. They 
were a people, a power on earth ; and an assault upon the 
lives of a small number, any number, would show that it 
was upon all, and that the life of a new nation was here to 
thrill the souls of the people from Maine to Georgia. 

Neither king nor parliament knew what had occurred in 
America. They thought they were dealing with a few proud 



214 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

colonists who had been spoiled by indulgence. They had 
no idea of the advent of this new national life. They had, 
however, only to try a simple experiment, and they would 
find it. 

The people of Boston, in the matter of the tea, had been 
decidedly riotous, and must be punished ; otherwise their 
example would be contagious. They would simply close up 
the harbor, and remove the seat of government to Salem. 

The famous " Boston Port Bill " was designed for this pur- 
pose; but, in the hands of Providence, it served simplj^ to show 
that the right to resist arbitrary government was in the peo- 
ple. An invisible power had made them one. The colonies 
of Rhode Island, promptly assembling, assured Massachusetts 
of hearty sympathy, and made the first suggestion of a Con- 
tinental Congress. Connecticut, in legislature assembled, 
took similar action. New York, Philadelphia, and Maryland 
uttered their notes of indignation, and made the cause of 
Boston their own. The House of Burgesses in Virginia ap- 
pointed the first day of June, 1774, when the oppressive 
bill was to go into operation, " a day of fasting and prayer." 
They were promptly dissolved by their royalist governor, 
Dunmore : but they as promptly re-assembled, and declared 
that " an attack upon one colony was an attack upon all ; 
threatening ruin to the rights of all, unless repelled by the 
united wisdom of the whole." 

Gage was in Boston, and his ships and materials of war 
were in the harbor. He came out with full powers, as com- 
mander-in-chief and governor, " for better regulating the 
government of Massachusetts Bay." The acts of despotic 
power were commenced. Boston was no longer a capital 
city. The British authorities removed to Salem. 

Resistance was everywhere ; but who should direct it ? The 
people could not act in mass. They must avail themselves 
of the representative principle already asserted and firmly 
established here. Who should take the lead ? The brave 
little State of Rhode Island, where the heroic Williams had 



AX HEROIC NATIONAL LIFE. 215 

reared aloft the standard of unrestricted liberty, had made 
the first suggestion ; and it was fitting that she should lead 
the van. Two days in advance of Massachusetts, she ap- 
pointed the first delegates to the first American Congress. 

Other colonies, North and South, rapidly followed ; and on 
the fifth day of September, 1774, the national life showed 
itself represented and embodied in a Congress of fifty-three 
delegates assembled in the city of Philadelphia, from Rhode 
Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New 
York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, Mary- 
land, North Carolina, and South Carolina, — twelve States just 
coming into form as distinct but mutually dependent civil 
governments. Georgia, at present restrained by power, was 
not yet in Congress ; but her people would soon triumph, and 
her representatives would show that she also belonged to the 
new nation. The war-power of the " Union '•• was now a 
visible reality. A rich, haughty, and populous kingdom 
might despise it, but not with impunity. God had called 
together this Congress, and he was in it. 

The war must now begin ; and England would slowly 
come to the knowledge of the fact, that, when she fired 
upon a company of " disloyal people," she had killed Ameri- 
can citizens. 

LEXINGTON AND BUNKER HILL. 

A common feeling of danger had produced the beginnings 
of military organization amongst the colonists. A small 
amount of military stores had been collected at Concord, 
some tv/enty miles from Boston. Gates ordered the destruc- 
tion of these military stores. He had four thousand men 
under his command, and with these he determined to end 
this rebellion. On the 19th of April, 1775, a detachment of 
eight hundred men, sent out to strike a decisive blow, met 
at Lexington, six miles from Concord, about one hundred 
'• minute-men " of the colony with arms in their hands, who 
were peremptorily ordered to " lay down their arms, and dis- 



216 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

perse." It was very strange that they did not do it. They 
stood up, and received the fire of his Majesty's well-dressed 
troops. Eight fell dead, the first "martyrs of the Kevolu- 
tion." The survivors retired to join other " minute-men " 
on the hill ; and the next fire was returned. The " regulars " 
fled in their turn; and soon the whole British column was in 
rapid retreat, with minute-men swarming on their front flank 
and rear ; and the whole detachment would have been cap- 
tured but for the arrival of re-enforcements under Lord Percy. 
With the utmost caution, the British forces made their way 
to Bunker Hill, with a loss of three hundred men killed and 
wounded. The American loss was about eighty-five. The 
startlincr news flew over New Eng;land, and Boston was soon 
in a state of siege. When the British forces found protection 
under the guns of the fleet, they felt relieved. They were 
no cowards ; but they now knew that the colonists would 
fight, and that to conquer the rebellion was no. child's play. 

The patriotism of the provincials was roused. Assurances 
of support came to Massachusetts from New Hampshire 
to Virginia and the Carolinas ; and men, with such arms as 
they could get, gathered to the camp of freedom outside 
of Boston. In the mean time, the Green-Mountain Boys 
rallied under stern old Ethan Allen, who on the 10th of May 
appeared suddenly in the midst of the fort at Ticonderoga, 
and demanded its surrender "in the name of the great Jeho- 
vah and the Continental Congress," — an authority which the 
British commander did not choose to resist. 

In the afternoon of the seventeenth day of June, 1775, twelve 
hundred men under Col. Prescott, with a few from New 
Hampshire under Stark, having six pieces of artillery behind 
a redoubt hastily thrown up, waited the attack of three thou- 
sand British regulars, commanded by Gens. Howe and Pigot, 
and covered by destructive batteries in Boston and a terrific 
fire from war-vessels in the harbor. But these volunteers 
do not flee. How strangely cool they are ! From hills and 
roofs and steeples, and from worlds invisible, eyes look down 



AN HEEOIC NATIONAL LIFE. 217 

upon the scene, while the most intense anxiety pervades the 
spectators. On move the powerful assailants until within a 
hundred yards of this handful of freemen, when suddenly 
a sheet of flame rises up from behind the redoubt : volley 
after volley rolls from the little band of heroes ; and sud- 
denly the regulars break and flee. A fire so steady, and an 
aim so deadly, no troops could endure. From this moment, 
provincial volunteers rose to the rank of a respectable and 
dreaded enemy. Again the British forces were led up to 
the attack, and again they recoiled from the terrific fire 
of the Americans. Not until the third desperate assault, and 
the. ammunition of the colonists was exhausted, did they retire 
to take up another position, and form the nucleus of the 
Continental Army under command of the newly-appointed 
commander-in-chief, the immortal Washington. 

For nearly a hundred years, the battles of Lexington and 
Bunker Hill have been under review. They have taken 
their position as great historical events. They revealed the 
resolute purpose of right to stand up firmly against might. 
They settled the question of resistance to despotic force by 
the force of liberty. They showed that numbers, backed 
by enormous power, could neither overawe nor conquer a 
handful of men sustained by the arm of God. The great 
disproportion between these human forces in battle seemed 
as if intended to render illustrious the divine power which 
controlled the conflict. 

SARATOGA AND BENNINGTON. 

In the spring of 1777, combinations were formed in Cana- 
da for the invasion of the United States. A brilliant army 
of eight thousand men, " besides a large number of Canadian 
boatmen, laborers, and skirmishers," all under command of 
Gen. Burgoyne, advanced by the way of Lake Champlain. 
We held the Fort of Ticonderoo;a under St. Clair ; but the 
British, dragging their cannon to the top of a high hill south 
and west from the fort, compelled its evacuation. Our forces 

28 



218 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

retired southward. The baggage and stores were taken to 
Skenesborough (now Whitehall) by water, while the principal 
army moved by land east of the lake. Disaster attended 
the retreat. Burgoyne pushed on with such energy as to cap- 
ture all the stores despatched to Skenesborough ; and twelve 
hundred men stopping at Hubberton were attacked by the 
British under Fraser and Reidesell, and completely routed. 
Some fled disgracefidly, others made a stout resistance ; but 
the triumph of the enemy was complete. Some two hun- 
dred were taken prisoners ; and the fugitives gathered by St. 
Clair united with his main command, which, after seven days 
of toil and suffering, joined Schuyler on the Hudson. 

Burgoj^ne, in the mean time, slowly struggled through the 
forest, and the obstructions which had been thrown in his 
way by the Americans, and soon appeared on the Hudson 
with all the spirit of a conqueror. He had thus far swept 
every thing before him, and had reached his first great ob- 
jective point with the loss of only two hundred men. He 
felt himself sufficiently at leisure to bring up liis stores, and 
re-adjust his command, before driving the rebel Americans 
into the clutches of Clinton, who, according to the plan of the 
campaign, was advancing from New York, capturing our posts 
on the Hudson, expecting to meet Burgoyne in the neighbor- 
hood of Albany. 

He now issued a new proclamation, calling for ten depu- 
ties from each township to assemble at Castleton, to organize 
under Gov. Skene a loyal government over a conquered 
country. He expected the prompt submission of " the Green- 
Mountain Boys," just now smarting under the act of Congress 
refusing to acknowledge their State independence ; but he 
was deceived. The patriotism of Vermont was too profound 
and pervading to be destroyed by trials, however severe or 
unjust they might be. 

Burgoyne determined to make the campaign comprehen- 
sive and decisive. He therefore sent out " Col. St. Leger 
with two hundred regulars, Sir John Johnson's Royal Greens, 



AN HEROIC NATIONAL LIFE, 219 

some Canadian Rangers, and a body of Indians under Brant, 
to harass the New-York frontier from the west." ^ Rallying 
his neighbors to repel this assault, the gallant Herkimer fell, 
mortally wounded. St. Leger laid siege to Fort Schuyler, 
our most western post, near the head of the Mohawk, com- 
manded by Gansevoort and Willett. A sally under Willett 
repelled the enemy; but four hundred brave Americans fell in 
the conflict, or under the merciless strokes of savages after 
they were prisoners of war. 

Another collateral plan of the campaign developed itself 
on the east of the Hudson. Burgoyne sent out Col. Baum, 
with a strong detachment of Germans, English Canadians, 
and Indians, as far as Bennington, '• to try the affections of 
the country, to mount Reidesell's Dragoons, to complete Pe- 
ters's corps of loyalists, and to obtain a larger supply of cat- 
tle, horses, and carriages," all of which seemed quite prac- 
ticable and judicious ; but the brave Stark, at the head of the 
New-Hampshire volunteers, was there, and, pointing his fin- 
ger toward the British, said, " There they are ! We beat 
to-day, or Molly Stark's a widow ! " Baum, seeing the danger 
began to intrench, and sent in haste to Burgoyne for re- 
enforcements. But the impetuous Stark led up his volunteers 
in four columns in front and rear ; and, after a hot engage- 
ment of two hours, the works of the enemy were carried. 
There was a fearful slaughter among the Germans, and many 
of the survivors were taken prisoners. 

Burgoyne came up to re-enforce the British ; but, as Provi- 
dence ordered, at the same time Warner appeared on the 
field wdth his regiment from Manchester, and the battle raged 
till dark, when victory turned on the side of liberty. The 
Americans had slain two hundred of their foes; taken "near 
six hundred prisoners, a thousand stand of arms, as many 
swords, and four pieces of artillery ; " having only fourteen 
killed, and forty-two wounded." The victory was complete, 
and " Molly Stark " was not " a widow." The failure of these 

* HUdreth, iii. 201. 



220 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

two incidental movements of the campaign had seriously 
changed the aspect of affairs before the great conflict came 
on. The work had been so hot, that Burgoyne found his 
Indian and Canadian allies unreliable. They scattered to 
the winds. In the mean time, the courage of the Americans 
rose to the highest pitch. Volunteers poured in from all di- 
rections. Col. Brown with a party of Lincoln's militia had 
dashed into the British fort at the outlet of Lake George, 
taken three hundred prisoners, and a fleet of vessels and 
bateaux, thus destroying the communications of Burgoyne 
with his base of supplies. 

Gates, by order of Congress, had superseded Schuy- 
ler; and on the 19th of September, 1777, the Americans with 
six thousand men confronted the British with about nine 
thousand on Behmus Heights. As the enemy came up 
on the left, the impetuous Morgan fell upon him with such 
fury as to break his ranks ; and his men became temporarily 
confused. But heroes from New Hampshire under Cilley, 
Scammell, and Hale, and from New York vuider Van Court> 
landt and Henry Livingston, and two regiments from Con- 
necticut, moved up to the conflict. It was three o'clock in 
the afternoon, and the battle raged till dark. The British 
and Germans fought with desperate valor. The contested 
field was won and lost again and again. The Americans 
rushed upon the cannon of the enemy, and captured them 
several times; but they were as often recaptured. The Brit>- 
ish left, re-enforced by the Germans, advanced with intre- 
pidity ; but they were confronted by Learned Avith four 
regiments from Massachusetts and one from New York. 
More than (ive hundred British, and nearly three hundred 
Americans, had fallen, when night arrested the carnage. 

The news electrified the American people. They rushed 
to arms, and swarmed to the scene of conflict. The situation 
of Burgoyne had become critical. He would, however, in 
the midst of his perils, show the bravery and skill of a good 
commander. Early the next morning, he sent out a recon- 



AN HEROIC NATIONAL LIFE. 221 

noitring party of fifteen hundred choice men ; but -they were 
promptly and furiously assailed by Poor's New-Hampshire 
brigade. The gallant but perfidious Arnold, superseded for 
his insubordination the day before, fired by the sound of. 
battle, appeared on the field, dashing from rank to rank on 
his powerful charger, throwing new courage into the bosoms 
of the patriot volunteers. The enemy's right fell back to pre- 
vent being cut ofi* from the main army, and his left staggered 
and broke. The gallant Fraser fell, mortally wounded. Ar- 
nold forced an entrance within the enemy's works ; his horse 
was killed under him; he was wounded, and his column 
hurled back. Col. Brook, with Jackson's Massachusetts regi- 
ment, assailed a German brigade, overwhelmed them, and 
captured their camp-equipage and artillery. Again and again 
the British rallied, and charged uj)on these brave men ; but 
they were invulnerable. Night again came on, and the bleed- 
ing heroes slept upon the field. Burgoyne, under cover of 
darkness, skilfully changed his position, and, at dawn of the 
third day, appeared in battle array. . But the great victory 
was already won. We catch a glimpse of the brave Lin- 
coln, falling, dangerously wounded, in a skirmish ; the burial 
of the heroic Fraser on the hill ; the angelic tenderness of 
the Baroness de Reidesell amid the wounded of our foes, 
with her children nestling by her side ; the burning build- 
ings of Gen. Schuyler ; and then of the desperate retreat 
of the enemy six miles to Saratoga, amid drenching rains, 
frigrhtful mud, and tan^-led forests. But it is of no avail. 
The proud Burgoyne surrenders five thousand six hundred 
and forty-two veteran soldiers to the victorious Gates, leav- 
ing; near four thousand dead and wounded on the fields of 
slaughter. 

Let us pause to reflect. The British army, composed 
chiefly of regulars, brave, and ably commanded, outnumbered 
the American raw recruits by nearly one-third. Congress 
had ventured the dangerous experiment of changing com- 
manders on the eve of a great battle. Schuyler, who, as. 



222 THE GKEAT REPUBLIC. 

results showed, deserved only the gratitude of his country, 
had fallen under the injustice of rivalry and suspicion ; and 
Gates, in no way his superior in command, unknown to many 
of the noble men who were to fight and conquer or die for 
their country, out of sight and danger during the slaughter 
of his troops ; the ammunition short, and the commissariat 
in a revolution from a change of its head ; Arnold, the best 
fighting general on the field, in disgrace ; and the heroes of 
Bennington claiming and taking their discharge from the 
expiration of time, — amid all these adverse facts, what was 
the natural result to be expected ? Surely nothing less than 
the utter defeat of the army of liberty. But the crisis of the 
war had come, and God was the commander of the American 
forces that day. The proud army of invasion from the North 
was destroyed, and the heroes of liberty moved on to their 
future conflicts, with a fresh inspiration from heaven. 

TRENTON AND PRINCETON. 

The distinguistied military abilities of Washington began 
to appear as well in his retreats as his advances. In Europe, 
his masterly skill in tactics was at length eulogized as indi- 
catiniif the hi(»:hest rank among the srreat commanders of 
modern times. Few generals, it was believed, could have 
kept so small an army together, for so long a time, in the 
presence of so formidable a foe. Few could have saved his 
men as he did when he lost New York, and his forts, and 
munitions of war, on the heights above the city, and espe- 
cially when he lost New Jersey. The haughty tone and pat- 
ronizing airs of the British commander in his famous procla- 
mation showed that he believed, and with good reason, that 
the war was virtually ended. 

When the Howes thought it safe to go into winter-quar- 
ters, and finish their task at their ease in the spring; just as 
the effects of their proclamation as king's commissioners be- 
gan to appear in the abandonment of the American cause by 



AN HEROIC NATIONAL LIFE. 223 

Tucker, president of the New-Jersey convention that formed 
the State constitution ; by Allen and Galloway, members of 
Congress from Pennsylvania ; and as McKean and Rawley 
had been recalled by the convention of Delaware for giving 
her votes in favor of independence, — while treachery was in 
the air he breathed, and every support of freedom seemed 
shaking to its fall, Washington was busy re-organizing his 
army. Not a word to Congress, or in councils of war, about 
surrendering his suffering men, or making terms with the 
enemy, but the most powerful and dignified appeals to Con- 
gress and the people to give him soldiers, — not militia who 
so frequently fled at the first fire, and communicated panic to 
the continentals ; not a mass of temporary men whose term of 
service would expire, and leave him without fighting-men on 
the eve of a battle. He insisted upon having national troops, 
who, despite all the prejudice against a standing army, 
were to serve during the war ; and, by the moral power which 
true greatness alone can inspire, he had finally brought up 
his forces to seven thousand men. 

Before the sixty days had expired, during which the 
British general had graciously permitted rebel Americans to 
return to their allegiance and accept his Majesty's pardon, and 
just before the terms of service for many of his troops had 
expired, Washington determined to attack his antagonist 
amid the holiday festivities of his soldiers. Fifteen hundred 
Hessians were at Trenton. On the evening of Christmas, he 
crossed the Delaware, about nine miles above Trenton, 
with two thousand five hundred men and six pieces of artil- 
lery. He had ordered Cadwallader to cross with two corps 
of militia in front of Trenton and below at the same time ; 
but floating ice prevented. It required the whole night and 
the most resolute efforts for Washing;ton to cross with his 
men. Near four o'clock in the morning, he commenced his 
march on Trenton, amid a violent snow-storm, in two col- 
umns, led by Greene and Sullivan, with Stark's regiment of 
New-Hampshire troops in advance. They reached the Hes- 



224 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

sians at eight, a.m., and found them sleeping after their 
Christmas debauch. They were completely surprised. Their 
commander fell, mortally wounded, while attempting to form 
his men. Resistance was vain. The lio;ht horse and a small 
number of infantry escaped to Bordentown ; but the expe- 
dition was completely successful. Washington recrossed the 
Delaware with a thousand prisoners and six cannon, leaving 
his proud enemy to wonder how a dying antagonist could 
strike a blow so sudden and decisive. While the Hessian 
prisoners were parading through the streets of Philadelphia, 
the British were prudently withdrawing from Trenton to 
Princeton. 

Cornwallis, detained by Howe from his intended voyage 
to England on account of the astonishing activity of the 
Americans and the capture of the Hessians, assumed the 
command. The great Fabian general would show that he 
could assume the offensive whenever it was prudent to do so. 
Cornwallis moved his army immediately for an attack on 
Washington at Trenton. He encamped for the night ; and 
Washington, sustained in his own judgment by a council of 
war, resolved neither to wait for an attack, nor to cross the 
Delaware in face of his enemy. He quietly sent away his 
baggage, kindled blazing camp-fires, left a detachment at 
work throwing up intrenchments in hearing of the enemy, 
and at midnight suddenly moved on Princeton in the rear of 
Cornwallis. Three regiments had been left there, two of 
which were on the march for Trenton. The first regiment 
met was attacked by Mercer and his militia. He fell, mor- 
tally wounded ; and the regiment, getting away, moved on 
toward Trenton. The second regiment made a stout resist- 
ance, but broke and fled. The regiment in town threw 
themselves into the college; but the cannon of Washington 
soon compelled them to surrender. 

Cornwallis, who had anticipated an easy victory over the 
feeble Americans early in the morning, was astounded by the 
roar of cannon in his rear, and immediately comprehended 



AN HEROIC NATIONAL LIFE. 225 

the designs of Washington. The British were just begin- 
ning to appreciate the profound military genius with which 
they had to contend. It was a startling fact, that they had 
an antagonist whom it was of no use to defeat; who was just 
as much alive after he had been crushed, and driven from 
New York and New Jersey, as before ; and whose plans of de- 
fence or attack could never be known except by the roar 
of his cannon and the charges of his brave army. Corn- 
wallis, of course, started in hot haste for New Brunswick, to 
save his military stores. Washington knew his business too 
well to run any further risks ; and, just as Cornwallis thought 
he was about to reach him, he quietly passed away with his 
three hundred Princeton prisoners to Morristown. 

Though he was reduced to the greatest straits by the 
retiring of soldiers whose term of office expired, and found 
his men miserably provisioned and clothed, and his skeleton 
regiments constituting but an apology for an army, yet the 
moral effects of his late movements were most salutary. 
Courage came again to the American heart ; and the fame 
of Washington, after nearly three years of consummate gen- 
eralship, began to reach the ears and understandings of 
warriors and princes abroad. 

WAR ON THE SEA. 

Our first warlike movement on the water was in 1613, 
when Capt. Argall went from Virginia with eleven small 
vessels, fourteen guns in all, to the coast of Nova Scotia, to 
capture the French port of St. Sauveur. It was an easy task, 
as the French were entirely without artillery. 

Capt. Argall, on his way back, dashed into the harbor 
of New York, frightened the Dutch terribly, and took pos- 
session of New York; leaving them, however, as entirely 
Dutch as before. They kept the government in the hands 
of their own nation for some fifty years thereafter. 

The first American decked vessel was built in New York 



226 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

by Skipper Adraen Block in 1614. New England built her 
first vessel of any size at or near Boston, in 1633. Capt. 
Gallop's naval engagement with the Narragansett Indians 
for the rescue of Capt. Oldham's pinnace, which had been 
seized and the captain murdered, was our first fight on the 
water ; and it was brave and victorious. 

About 1666, the career of the buccaneers commenced, and 
the daring exploits of the famous Capt. Kidd followed. 
There is, however, more of romance than history in the 
frightful tales told of him to excite our childish fears. 

The capture of Port Royal in Acadia (now Annapolis, 
Md.) in 1710, and the failure of the attempt upon the 
French possessions on the St. Lawrence in 1711, are the 
next important events of our naval history. 

The whale-fisheries then became the naval school for 
American seamen. 

War with Spain was declared in 1739, and native Ameri- 
cans began to exercise their skill in naval warfare. In 1714, 
a large number of the transports sent against Cuba were 
built by the colonists. 

The year 1744 found the English at war with France. 
This furnished the American colonists their first opportunity 
to undertake by sea and land an enterprise of importance. 
Without aid from England, the commander of our little co- 
lonial marine, Capt. Edward Tyng of Massachusetts, with 
twelve small vessels besides the transports, sailed for Louis- 
burg, an important port commanding the entrance of the 
St. Lawrence. The co-operating land-forces, 4,070 strong, 
all from New England, were commanded by Col. William 
Pepperell of Maine. Commodore Warren of the British 
navy arrived, with a part of the southern squadron from the 
AVest Indies, in time to take command. After forty-seven 
days' vigorous siege, and a severe cannonade, Louisburg sur- 
rended. The peace of Aix la Chapelle arrested for the time 
being the opening career of American bravery on the sea. 

It was 1748. The American colonies had now been little 



AN HEBOIC NATIONAL LIFE. 227 

more than a century struggling upward, and they numbered 
something over a milHon of souls. The growth of naviga- 
tion had been very rapid. That year five hundred vessels 
sailed from Boston, and four hundred and thirty entered 
her port ; while the shipping from and to Portsmouth, N.H,, 
New York, Philadelphia, Newport, R.I., and Perth Amboy, 
N. J., was quite extensive. 

Peace was of short duration. The two nations could not 
live together on this continent. "The old French war" 
was opened on the 17th of May, 1756 ; which, though it 
furnished little opportunity for naval enterprise, ended in the 
complete destruction of French power in America. This 
result, so largely due to the energy of the Earl of Chatham, 
harmonized with the evident purposes of Providence, and 
left the colonies, with the military discipline they had re- 
ceived, free to go on in the accumulation of power for the 
great struggle which was rapidly approaching. Peace was 
declared Feb. 10, 1763; and France ceased the struggle 
for territory here, holding nothing above Louisiana. The 
colonies were then to prepare for the great conflict with the 
mother-country, now just at hand. 

The first overt act of hostility between the colonies and 
England was the famous chase between the Providence 
packet " Hannah " and the British schooner " Gasp^." How 
characteristic for the Yankee craft to lead " The Gaspe," which 
she could not fight, on to a bar where she must remain 
until a company on shore was extemporized to attack and 
destroy her during the night! On "The Gaspe" was shed 
the first blood of the Revolution. This daring adventure pro- 
duced great indignation in England. But neither a thousand 
pounds sterling for the arrest of the leader from Providence, 
nor five hundred pounds to any informer, nor the commis- 
sion of inquiry under the great seal of England, sitting for 
five months, could secure the least information for the crown. 
England did not comprehend this mysterious event ; America 
did not. It was little Rhode Island opening the War of In- 



228 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

dependence. This was in 1772 : the battle of Lexington was, 
as we have seen, in 1775. 

The first engagement on the water, after the opening of 
the war, was between a lumber-sloop of Machias, Me., and 
"The Margaretta." Capt. Moore had not heard of the war; 
but the news had reached the Maine lumbermen, and they 
promptly resolved upon the capture of "The Margaretta." It 
was Sunday, and the captain and his nien, seeing danger, 
escaped from the church through the window. He moved 
his vessel, as he thought, to a place of safety, but was fired 
upon, and summoned to surrender, from a high bluff. He 
moved farther, and would have run away, rather than fight ; 
but the ugly-looking Yankee craft came down upon him 
suddenly and roughly. "The Margaretta" was boarded, her 
commander shot down; and, after the fall of twenty men on 
both sides, the British vessel was surrendered. Though su- 
perior in numbers and armament, she could by no means 
resist the dreadful energy with which she was assailed. The 
volunteer crew of the lumber-sloop sailed without a com- 
mander, but made one on the way to the battle. Jeremiah 
O'Brien has the historic honor of conducting the forces of 
this Lexington of the seas. 

We shall now see the slow growth of the naval power of 
the Kepublic. The persistent idea in America that this was 
a temporary struggle for certain rights under the crown, 
and not a war between equals, rendered the action of the 
colonies slow, and their preparations inadequate, both on 
the land and on the sea. The Americans were looking 
anxiously to the ocean : but it was not till the 13th of Oc- 
tober, 1775, that Congress passed a law initiating the or- 
ganization of naval arrangements; and not till the 10th of 
November of the same year that Massachusetts " established 
courts of admiralty, and enacted laws for the encouragement 
of nautical enterprises." * 

On the 13th of December following. Congress ordered 

* Cooper's Naval History of the United States, p. 37. 



AN HEROIC NATIONAL LIFE. 229 

thirteen ships of war built ; and on the 22d of December, 
1775, Eseck Hopkins was appointed commander-in-chief 
Thus began the navy of the United States. 

Commodore Hopkins soon made a dash at New Provi- 
dence, where his marines behaved with the steadiness and 
gallantry which have ever since characterized the men of 
our navy when brought into action on land or on the sea. 
About a hundred cannon, a large quantity of other mili- 
tary stores, and the governor, were the trophies of his vic- 
tory. 

The first considerable naval engagement under orders of 
Congress was on the 6th of April, 1776. Commodore Hop- 
kins, with a part of his squadron, fell in with "The Glasgow," 
a large ship of twenty guns. "The Cabot" boldly attacked 
the stranger, delivering her broadside skilfully; but her metal 
was too light for important effect. She dexterously moved 
away from her enemy; and "The Alfred" came up hand- 
somely into her place, and delivered her fire. " The Andrea 
Doria " came into action, and did her best ; while " The 
Providence " moved under the stern of " The Glasgow," and 
blazed away in vigorous style. 

Capt. Howe, soon perceiving that he was in danger if 
he continued the fight, shook off his spunky little assailants ; 
and " The Glasgow," by dexterous sailing, escaped after con- 
siderable damage. 

This affair, which at first was taken for an important vic- 
tory, produced, when the true history came to be known, 
extreme mortification among the American people, and cost 
the commodore and several of his commanders the loss of 
position. 

By way of compensation for the escape of " The Glasgow," 
our spirited little " Lexington," Capt. Barry, fell in with the 
armed tender " Edward," and in a brave fight of an hour cut 
her nearly to pieces, and captured her. 

The famous Capt. Paul Jones now comes in sight. In com- 
mand of "The Providence," he mistook an English fastrsail- 



230 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

ing war-frigate for a large merchantman. Finding his mistake, 
he tacked ship ; and " The Providence " " showed her heels." 
The chase continued for four hours ; and the stranger gained 
so rapidly as to get within musket-shot ; when, to the aston- 
ishment of the British commander, just as he was sure of 
his prize, she edged away, tacked, filled all her sails, and bore 
directly down on her antagonist Passing within pistol-shot, 
she sailed away before the wind ; and, before the commander 
of " The Salisbury " had fairly recovered from his surprise, 
" The Providence " was out of reach. 

"The Providence" was a lively little craft. She led off 
" The Milford," thirty-two guns, for hours, just keeping out 
of reach of harm ; while " The Milford " kept up a roaring 
fire for the whole time, without giving " The Providence " 
a single shot. She glided about like the spirit of the sea, 
gathering up her prizes as if by magic. 

Independence was now declared, and we had war in ear- 
nest, on the ocean as well as on the land. 

" The Andrea Doria," Capt. Biddle, even outdid " The 
Providence " in the number of her exploits and captures. 

In the mean time, Boston had been evacuated ; but, as no 
notice of the fact could reach the British ships at sea, some 
thirty sail fell into our hands. 

The Connecticut brig " Defence " leaving Plymouth on 
the 17th of June, 1776, Capt. Harding soon heard the noise 
of an engagement. Crowding sail for the scene, he came 
up with four light American schooners, which had been en- 
gaged with two British transports, using metal too heavy 
for them. 

Capt. Harding made his arrangements for battle, and 
moving boldly in between the transports, " within pistol- 
shot," called out to the enemy to " strike." " Ay, ay, I'll 
strike ! " responded a voice from the largest vessel ; and a ter- 
rific broadside instantly followed. The action was very severe? 
and lasted for an hour, when both British transports struck, 
and " The Defence " led away her prizes, containing nearly 



AN HEROIC NATIONAL LIFE. 231 

two hundred British soldiers, with Lieut.-Col Campbell, com- 
mander of the regiment. She had eight men wounded ; 
while the transports, besides many wounded, lost eighteen 
killed, including Major Menzies, who gave the defiant an- 
swer to the challenge of Capt. Harding. The next morning, 
" The Defence," notwithstanding she had suffered a good deal 
aloft, made sail, and, discovering a stranger, overhauled and 
captured her. She proved to be another transport with more 
than a hundred British soldiers ; and these, with those taken 
by " The Doria," raised the number of prisoners from one of 
the best corps of the British army to about five hundred 
men. 

We now see the brave Capt. Wickes with his extempo- 
rized squadron sailing entirely around Ireland, and sweep- 
ing the seas of every craft not too heavy for him to engage ; 
and then mournfully watch the gallant little " Lexington," as, 
at the close of a second hotly-contested engagement, she 
strikes her flag to the English " Alert ; " and then see " The 
Reprisal," foundering upon the banks of Newfoundland, and 
the gallant Wickes, with every man on board but the cook, 
perishing in the water. 

Presently Capt. Gustavus Conyngham appears amid the 
strife. He is in " The Surprise ; " and on the 7th of March, 
1777, he dashes up to the Harwich packet "Prince of Orange," 
and captures her so suddenly, that he walks quietly down into 
her cabin, and salutes her commander and his passengers at 
breakfast. The captain, by this little transaction, became 
involved in a French intrigue, and was imprisoned, his cut- 
ter seized, and his prizes were released. English confidence 
in France was thus, for the time being, restored ; and, with 
perfect assurance, vessels were sent to Dunkirk to convey 
Capt. Conyngham and his men to England to be " tried as 
pirates." 

American enterprise had, however, forestalled this action. 
Another cutter was promptly purchased at Dunkirk. Capt 
Conj^ngham and his people were ingeniously released ; and, 



232 THE GEEAT REPUBLIC. 

on the 18th of July, they were out on the water in "The 
Revenge," a name terribly prophetic. She took prizes every 
day, many of which were soon placed to our credit on our 
account with Sj)ain. Having suffered from a gale, artfully 
disguised, she slipped into an English port, and refitted, took 
in supplies in Ireland, made a cruise of unprecedented suc- 
cess among the English shipping, refitted in Ferrol, and 
sailed for home. 

These darins^ movements in British waters made a sensa- 
tion. Mr. Deane, writing to Robert Morris, says that the 
cruise of Capt. Wickes " effectually alarmed England, pre- 
vented the great fair at Chester, occasioned insurance to 
rise, and even deterred the English merchants from ship- 
ping goods in English bottoms at any rate ; so that, in a 
few weeks, forty sail of French ships were loaded in the 
Thames with freight, — an instance never before known." 
In the same letter, with regard to the exploits of Conyng- 
ham, he says, "In a word, Conyngham, by his first and 
second bold expeditions, is become the terror of all the 
eastern coast of England and Scotland, and is more dreaded 
than Thurot was in the late war." 

Glancing back a little, we find Capt. Mugford in " The 
Franklin " capturing " The Hope," with " fifteen hundred bar- 
rels of powder and a large quantity of intrenching tools, gun- 
carriages, and other stores," and taking his valuable prize 
into Boston " in sight of the British squadron." Then Capt. 
Robiuvson, in " The Sachem," fell in " with an English letter of 
marque, a Jamaica-man, and captured her after a sharp ac- 
tion ; " and, as a reward for his bravery, he was made com- 
mander of the fine historic vessel " The Andrea Doiia." She 
was a mischievous craft, and was so well known to the Brit- 
ish navy, that " The Racehorse," twelve guns, Lieut. Jones, 
was sent out expressly to capture her. Off Porto Rico, Capt. 
Robinson saw the stranger bearing down upon him, and 
had hardly time to prepare for action before he received her 
broadside. A very sharp contest of nearly two hours fol- 



AN HEROIC NATIONAL LIFE. 233 

lowed, when the Englishman found herself fearfully crippled, 
her commander and a large number of her men being slain ; 
and she struck her colors to " The Andrea Doria." Capt. 
Robinson came safely and proudly into Philadelphia, leading 
as a prize " The Racehorse," sent defiantly out to capture 
him. The British could never have the satisfaction of mak- 
ing " good and lawftd prize " of " The Andrea Doria." She 
had done her work, and was burnt by American orders, 
" when the evacuation of Fort Mifflin gave the British the 
command of the Delaware," into which they went, to be 
driven out after a terrible contest with galleys claiming 
those waters as their home. 

We have now followed the young and rising American 
navy far enough to see, that, in the hands of Providence, our 
experimental people found themselves as much at home in 
war on the sea as on the land ; that the American marines 
were a powerful arm of the Revolutionary service ; and that 
the proud reliance of England on her naval strength was 
utterly vain against a power that could simultaneously create 
a navy, and command victories on an element for which the 
feeble colonists were supposed to be wholly unprepared. 
Here, on the sea as on the land, we see that " the race is 
not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong ; " but " God is 
the Judge. He putteth down one, and setteth up another." 

Let us now turn again to the land. 

CORNWALLIS AND YORKTOWN. 

Early in April, 1780, Lord Cornwallis appeared in com- 
mand of the British army in the South. He was a fearless 
commander, and evidently indulged a feeling of contempt 
for American rebels. He sought for our little suffering army 
with the eagerness of a conqueror. He met them under 
command of Gates, near Camden, S.C., attacked them with 
impetuosity, and swept them from the field. Gates and 
Caswell were borne away by the flying volunteers ; and 

30 



234 THE GREAT KEPUBLIC. 

De Kalb, who stood firmly with his small band of continen- 
tals, fell, mortally wounded. His men, taken in flank, 
broke, and fled for their lives. The army of Freedom left 
nine hundred dead on the field, and as many prisoners in 
the hands of the British. The track of their retreat, strewn 
with arms, knapsacks, and broken wagons, indicated a crush- 
ing defeat. Some three or four days after. Gates, the hero 
of Saratoga, found himself eighty miles from the scene of 
his disaster, at Charlotte, N.C., with only two hundred men. 
Would not this end the war in the South ? 

In the mean time, the daring Sumter had dashed into a 
convoy on its way to Cornwallis from the South, and cap- 
tured it with two hundred prisoners ; but Tarleton, a foe by 
whom he was well matched, moving with great celerity, 
rushed into his camp while his tired men in fancied security 
sought rest and refreshment, recaptured the British stores, 
released their prisoners, killed a hundred and fifty men, and 
took three hundred prisoners. The news of this disaster 
met Gates at Charlotte. What now was to prevent the 
abandonment of the struggle in complete despair ? There 
was no American army worth the name in either of the 
Carolinas. Gates, stripped of his laurels, and fleeing from 
the foe he dared not meet, was, by order of Congress and 
appointment of Washington, superseded by Greene. 

Cornwallis renewed his supplies, and, as a warning to 
others, hunti; a few Americans who had before, in their ex- 
tremity, accepted British protection ; then moved on with 
the spirit of a conqueror. 

Marion, the bold partisan leader, came out from the swamps 
of the Pedee, and, dashing about amongst the Tories of the 
North-west district, made them very uncomfortable. 

Siunter, though vanquished, was not yet dead. Gathering 
his scattered forces around him, and uniting them with a few 
from over the mountains, he soon showed that an heroic life 
survived the calamities of defeat. 

Cornwallis moved on North to find a foe if he could, and 



AN HEROIC NATIONAL LITE. 235 

complete his campaign by a triumphant march through the 
conquered territory. He did not know the American peo- 
ple, nor the power which guided their strange career. 

Irregular multitudes of " insurgents " appeared before 
Augusta ; but, upon the approach of the British forces, they 
suddenly disappeared. Ferguson was sent out to intercept 
them. Moving close along the base of the mountains, he 
was to destroy, capture, or disperse whatever " rebels " he 
might find. But, to his astonishment, he was suddenly con- 
fronted by two thousand mounted rough backwoodsmen, 
commanded by Shelby and Sevier, future governors of Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee. He saw his danger, and made haste 
to retreat. Very despicable foes they were ; but a thousand 
of them were after him with their fleetest horses and best 
rifles. It was a mad break-neck race of thirty-six hours; 
and the British commander was at length brought to bay 
at King's Mountain. Ferguson was amazed. Enemies 
seemed to spring from the ground to stare at him with fiery 
eyes, and gnash their teeth in defiance of his proud superi- 
ority. He threw up hasty defences, and fought bravely. 
Volley after volley rolled out from his veterans, and charge 
after charge of the British bayonets drove the cold steel into 
the bosoms of these struggling freemen; but their trusty 
rifles flashed with unerring aim, and they returned every 
charge witli desperate valor, rushing into the arms of death 
to save their bleeding country. Such terrific onsets no foe 
could resist. Ferguson fell, and the victory was gained. 
Eight hundred men surrendered to the survivors of the thou- 
sand from the mountains. These backwoodsmen were not 
very refined in the art of war. Caring little for forms, they 
hung ten of the most odious of their prisoners ; and, dashing 
again into the forests, they disappeared as suddenly as they 
came. 

Cornwallis now thought it time to be more prudent, and 
commenced a retrograde movement. The wild, furious men 
who had annihilated Ferguson's command began to appear 



236 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

formidable. Retiring to Winnsborough, S.C., he waited for 
the arrival of re-enforcements. Three thousand under Les- 
lie were on their way from New York ; but, hearing of 
Ferguson's disaster and the retreat of Cornwallis, they re- 
embarked for Charleston. 

Marion again came out of his swamp, and threatened the 
communication of the British with Charleston. The vigi- 
lant Tarleton drove him back. Sumter appeared suddenly 
in the field, and, this time, was more than a match for his old 
adversary Tarleton. The British attacked furiously, and were 
bravely repulsed ; but Sumter fell, dangerously wounded, 
and his men dispersed. 

Greene now commenced in good earnest the re-organization 
of the army in the South. " He found the troops without 
pay, and their clothing in tatters. There was hardly a dol- 
lar in the military chest. Subsistence was obtained entirely 
by military impressment."* A few drafted men came from 
North Carolina. Morgan with his Maryland regiment, and 
"Washington's dragoons of Lee's corps," appeared across 
Broad River on the left and rear of the enemy ; " while the 
main body encamped on the Pedee to cover the fertile dis- 
trict to the northward, and to threaten the British communi- 
cation with Charleston."! 

A new enemy now appeared in the field. The perfidious 
Arnold, anxious to show his gratitude to the British for his 
fifty thousand dollars, the reward of his treachery, and for 
his promotion to the rank of brigadier, sent out an " Address 
to the Inhabitants of America," and a " Proclamation to the 
Officers and Soldiers of the Continental Army," hoping to ex- 
cuse his treason, and seduce honest patriots from their loyalty 
to freedom. In this he signally failed. The American sol- 
diers scorned him and his proclamation. He was in the field 
with sixteen hundred men, chiefly Tories, on his way from 
New York to join Cornwallis. 

Washington had been obliged to contend with the spirit 

* Hildreth, iii. 328. t Ibid., p. 29. 



AN HEROIC NATIONAL LIFE. 237 

of revolt in the New-Jei^sey and Pennsylvania lines : but 
firm patriotism, and the spirit of conciliation, triumphed over 
these formidable trials also ; and the army of Liberty, which 
had so recently seemed to be utterly annihilated, now gath- 
ered about the proud British commander in formidable 
numbers. 

The gallant Baron Steuben brought together a small force 
in Virginia, and watched Arnold, who, with the ferocity of a 
savage, was burning and destroying the country he had 
deserted. Fearing to be taken prisoner, as well he might, 
he hastily retreated to Portsmouth beyond the reach of the 
French fleet, which threatened his communications. In the 
mean time, a brief naval engagement sent the worsted French 
fleet back to Newport. 

Lafayette, on his way to join the army of the South, 
hearing of this, the fourth failure of the navy from France, 
halted his command at Annapolis " in a great state of desti- 
tution, without shoes, hats, or tents." 

Now the plot thickens. Tarleton is sent out to attack 
Morgan, whose hope of safety was in crossing the Broad 
River before Tarleton reached him, or running the risk of 
a battle. He preferred the latter, and at " the Cowpens " 
waited the coming-up of the enemy. The attack was furi- 
ous and terrible. Morgan seemed to retreat, and the Brit- 
ish rushed on in pursuit, when the continentals turned sud- 
denly upon their pursuers, and poured into their ranks a 
fire so deadly, that they recoiled and broke. The flying mi- 
litia wheeled, charged upon the British cavalry, and routed 
them; and the brave Tarleton's command scattered and fled, 
leaving more than six hundred dead and wounded on the 
field, with all their baggage and artillery in the hands of the 
foe they had so recently despised. 

Cornwallis had moved up rapidly to rescue his favorite 
commander; but he was too late. He could only receive 
him and his few remaining horsemen as fugitives from the 
field of destruction. Leslie came up with his two thousand 



238 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

men from New York, and Cornwallis resolved upon the bold- 
est measures to retrieve his losses in the two great defeats 
under Ferguson and Tarleton. He burned all his stores and 
superfluous baggage, and, " converting his whole army into a 
light-infantry corps," dashed on to destroy Morgan's force 
before he could cross the Catawba. But this enterprising 
commander was thoroughly alive to his danger, and pushed 
forward with such rapidity as to gain the opposite bank, 
with all his men and stores, two hours before the British van 
reached the river; and God sent the waters, which produced 
a sudden rise in the Catawba, and rendered it impossible for 
Cornwallis to follow. 

Hearing of the American victory at " the Cowpens," 
Greene had strained every nerve to form a junction with Mor- 
gan, which he accomplished on the 21st of June. Assuming 
the command of Morgan's men, and calling out the militia 
to guard the fords, he hoped to hold Cornwallis until the 
main body of his army came up. But one detachment of 
the British dashed aside the militia under Gen. Davidson, 
and secured the ford. The energetic Tarleton overwhelmed 
another small body of militia, and the forces of Cornwallis 
crossed the river. 

Greene now pushed on for the Yadkin ; but the race was 
so close, that Cornwallis captured several of his wagons. 
At Guilford Court-house, Greene met his main army, now 
numbering two thousand three hundred men; and, by the 
celerity of his movements, he gained another advantage over 
his wily antagonist, crossing with his men over into Virginia, 
where Cornwallis did not attempt to pursue him. Newbern, 
whither the North-Carolina authorities had fled at the ap- 
proacli of the British, was attacked, and destroyed with all 
its stores, by a British force from Wilmington; and the people 
of the State were again called upon to make their submis- 
sion, and the well-disposed to join the British army. There 
were numerous Tories in those parts; but they were begin- 
ning to doubt the safety of open disloyalty to their country. 



Alf HEEOIC NATIONAL LIFE. 239 

Fearless partisan troops dashed in wildly among them, and 
taught them caution; and severe exemplary punishment 
very frequently fell upon those who were caught in the 
act of rebellion. Greene showed himself an adept in tactics. 
He was not strong enough to risk a battle ; but he worried his 
antagonist by his sudden movements, and held the Tories 
in check by seeming almost ubiquitous. His suffering sol- 
diers were full of patriotic energy ; and, though they could 
frequently be tracked to the place of their uncertain repose 
by the blood from their bare feet, they were ready for an- 
other rapid march, or skirmish with the British, or to dash 
into a neighborhood of Tories at any moment of the day 
or iiisrht. 

o 

Fresh troops came up from Maryland, Virginia, and North 
Carolina ; and now, numbering about four thousand five hun- 
dred men, Greene determined to risk a general engagement. 
Cornwallis, reduced to less than half this number, thought it 
safe to rely upon superior valor and discipline, and accepted 
the challenge. On the 15th of March, 1781, the battle near 
Guilford Court-house was fous-ht. The struo-y-le was severe. 
The victory wavered between the contending armies. The 
British finally gained the field, but with the loss of five hun- 
dred men, and were so crippled, that they did not dare to 
attempt pursuit; while the Americans lost four hundred, and 
effected an orderly retreat : but a large part of the militia 
disbanded, and rendered the campaign again critical. 

Cornwallis found himself driven to act on the defensive. 
His army, bleeding and nearly starved, coiuuienced a re- 
treat on Wilmington, N.C. ; and Greene boldly marched into 
South Carolina, and ordered Lee to unite with Marion, and 
attack Rawdon's communications with Charleston. Corn- 
wallis had failed to penetrate the designs of his antagonist 
until it was too late to prevent them ; and he imitated them 
by pushing boldly into Virginia to join the forces under 
Arnold and Phillips. 

Rawdon, by a circuit through the edge of a swamp, gained 



240 THE GKEAT REPUBLIC. 

the rear of Greene's army ; but the American commander 
formed his men, and faced him so quickly as to defeat the 
intended surprise. The British line was now furiously as- 
saulted in front and on both flanks, while Washington's horse 
fell upon their rear. Lord Rawdon ordered up his reserves ; 
and the veteran Maryland regiment, under Granby, gave 
way before the British bayonet. Confusion, and a retreat 
of Greene's troops over the hill, followed ; but the American 
cavalry rushed into the British lines, held them in check, 
and brought away the cannon the infantry had left. Greene 
went into camp twelve miles from the battle-ground for 
temporary rest. 

In the mean time, Lee and Marion had attacked and taken 
Fort Watson, between Camden and Charleston ; and the re- 
leased patriots between the Pedee and the Santee flew to 
arms. Rawdon, alarmed for his communications, abandoned 
Camden, and " retreated to Monk's Corner." The Ameri- 
cans took Fort Motte, Orangeburg, Fort Granby, and Au- 
gusta. Uniting his forces with Lee, an attack was made 
upon the main stronghold of the British at "Ninety-six;" 
but Rawdon approaching, re-enforced by three regiments 
from Ireland, Greene retired ; and swamps fifteen miles broad, 
and a circuit of seventy miles, the only practicable route, 
separated the hostile armies. 

Greene had now relieved a large part of South Carolina, 
and shut up the British to a small territory between the 
Santee and the Lower Savannah. A season of comparative 
quiet followed, neither party being prepared to commence 
aggressive movements. 

In April, 1781, Lafayette appears in command of a small 
New-England force to observe Phillips and Cornwallis in 
Virginia, just in time to save Richmond from the clutches of 
Phillips, who hastened to unite his forces with those of Corn- 
wallis to aid in the vain attempt to prevent the junction 
of Lafayette and Wagner. 

Count de Grasse approaching the Chesapeake with a 



AK HEROIC NATIONAL LIFE. 241 

powerful French fleet, and the British commander fearing, 
with reason, an attack of the alHed armies and the French 
just arrived from Newport, orders were sent to CornwalHs 
to take up, for the present, some strong position in Virginia. 
But Washington and Rochamheau determined to leave New 
York undisturbed, and make a vigorous efibrt against Corn- 
wallis. Lafayette was therefore ordered to cut off his retreat 
into North Carolina. 

Greene was now ao;ain in the field. Unitino; his continen- 
tals to Pickens's militia and Marion's dashing corps, he moved 
towards the enemy, now commanded by Col. Stuart. The 
bloody battle of Eutaw Springs followed. Both armies fought 
with the bravery and skill of veterans. The Americans, 
after a fierce conflict, broke the English left, and seemed upon 
the verge of a great triumph, when a body of British threw 
themselves into a stone house ; and, while Greene's men 
were attempting in vain to dislodge them, Stuart's veterans 
repvdsed a cavalry attack, and gained the rear of the Ameri- 
cans, and compelled them to retreat. The army of Congress 
numbered a few more than two thousand, and the British a 
few less. Of this small force, the British lost some seven 
hundred men, and the Americans nearly as many. 

The victory of this fiercely-contested field was claimed by 
both parties ; but all the fruits of victory were with the 
Americans. The British retreated to Monk's Corner ; and, 
being shut up between the Cooper and Ashley, they had no 
power to extricate themselves. 

The sufferings of Greene's soldiers were dreadful. They 
were barefoot, and almost destitute of clothing. They must 
go back to the Santee Hills to rest. 

At length, the long-expected French fleet appeared in 
American waters. Count de Grasse, after a cautious defen- 
sive engagement with a portion of the English fleet, safely 
conducting a large number of merchantmen into a place 
of safety, and convoying another large fleet so fiir towards 
France as to be out of danger, by skilful manoeuvring 

31 



242 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

entered the Chesapeake about the last of August. The Brit- 
ish Admiral Graves, now commanding the combined British 
fleet, arriving off the mouth of the bay on the 5th of Sep- 
tember, was greatly astonislied to find De Grasse securely 
inside with twenty-four ships of the line. After four most 
distressing failures, the French fleet now became able to ren- 
der most effective service. The count, put into immediate 
communication with Lafayette, sent ships to block up James 
and York Rivers, and thus prevented the retreat of Corn- 
wallis, who intrenched himself strongly at Yorktown. Send- 
ing three thousand French troops to re-enforce Lafayette, 
De Grasse at once ordered his fleet to sea. Avoiding; a g-en- 
eral engagement, he' succeeded in covering the French fleet 
from Newport under Du Barras, who availed himself of a 
favorable moment to slip into the bay with his invaluable 
cargo of military stores and heavy guns for the siege of 
Yorktown. Arrangements for the contemplated attack on 
Cornwallis were promptly consummated by Washington, De 
Grasse, and Rochambeau. The French and American forces 
were brought down the Chesapeake in transports, and were 
soon united under Lafayette at Williamsburg. Gov. Nel- 
son came up with three thousand five hundred Virginia 
militia, and the whole besieging army rose to sixteen 
thousand men. The British forces, about eight thousand 
strong, with the advantage of their strong defences, firmly 
but anxiously waited the attack. Two advance redoubts 
were stormed, one by the French, the other by the Americans 
under Alexander Hamilton, whose thirst for military glory 
had thrown him into the lines. These rival forces rushed 
to their objects with the greatest dariug. Both were irresisti- 
ble, and these " redoubts were included in the second par- 
allel." The works about Yorktown began to crumble under 
the guns of the assailing forces. A brave sally was attempted, 
and failed. " As a last resort, Cornwallis thought of passing 
his army across to Gloucester, forcing a passage through the 
troops on that side, and making a push for New York ; but 



AN HEROIC NATIONAL LIFE. 243 

a violent storm drove his boats down the river, and even 
that desperate scheme had to be abandoned." * The long- 
dreaded end had come at length. For more than fourteen 
months, this brave commander had struggled against destiny 
with incredible energy. He entered the field with the air 
of a conqueror. He fought pitched battles ; he marched and 
suffered, advanced and retreated ; blew up his stores ; dashed 
into the ranks of his enemies, and scattered them to the 
winds ; received coolly the most astounding defeats of his 
auxiliary expeditions ; and, when at length brought to bay, 
he planned his defences skilfully, and made the best of his 
failing munitions of war. But he saw at length that it was 
all in vain ; and, like a true soldier, he resolved to spare the 
further effusion of blood, and surrendered his forces, now sev- 
en thousand in numl)er, to Washington, as prisoners of war. 

This grand event in the South had at length answered to 
the capture of Burgoyne in the North, and the War of 
American Independence was virtually ended. 

THE HEROISM OF THE NATIONAL LIFE. 

The bravery of war is not of itself true heroism. It 
appears on both sides ; is no certain evidence of the right, or 
guaranty of victory ; and may be evinced, in a high degree, 
by heaven-daring offenders against the claims of God and 
the rights of man. 

Nor would the reckless courag-e of individuals, or of com- 
panics of American volunteers, in separate and unorganized 
warfare, give hope of success against the sturdy, well-planned 
measures of a powerful nation for a period of eight long 
bloody years. But the following great facts appear appro- 
priately to conclude this chapter. 

The resistance of force by arms came after a war of prin- 
ciples had been going on for a hundred and fifty years. 
The ris2;hts of freemen had been searched out and defined 

* Hildreth, iii. 369. 



244 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 



with the vigor of the keenest logic and the clearness of 
light. The usurpations of despotism had exhausted argu- 
ment, prerogative, and administrative ability ; and at length 
had drawn the sword with the avowed purpose of subjugating 
or destroying the colonists, who could not be overawed. 

When this crisis came on, individual patriots found whole 
communities with them : the menaced colonies found all 
other colonies promptly arranged by their side. When 
the necessity for State action arose, inchoate but real 
States appeared with the habits of independent legislation 
already formed, and under the direction of a statesmanship 
of which any people might be proud. When the peril of 
irregular, unorganized warfare was seen, a living nation 
appeared clothed with representative powers to consolidate 
the belliorerent forces, and exalt the strag-o-le to national diff- 
nity. This was the mysterious common life of a growing 
people. Few could comprehend its character, or explain its 
origin. It was not anticipated ; it was hardly invoked ; it 
was certainly not well understood. And yet it was here, 
throbbing in the bosoms of three millions of people, and 
organizincr the scattered elements of a nation into the 
power of a formidable unity, without uttering a word in 
regard to its predestined independence. 

If any man had asked the wisest American, " What is the 
character of this life ? " he would probably have answered, 
" Feeble, uncertain, very humble, and limited in its aim." 
If the same question had been put to an English absolutist, 
he would have said, " There is nothing of it : a few brief 
ebulUtions of passion, and it is gone." But' a profounder 
insight into the philosophy of history and tlfe plans of God 
would have revealed the life of a new and powerful nation 
throbbing with energy, and instinct with a heroism which 
would measure its power, not by the numbers of its men, 
but by the divine justice of its cause. This is true heroism. 
Hence, when the British Government coolly calculated the 
force and expense of overwhelming this rebellion, the Ameri- 



AN HEROIC NATIONAL LIFE. 245 

can Congress and people made no dependence upon the 
probability of matching them by similar strength. They 
only knew that their country was to be invaded by formi- 
dable armies, sustained by enormous power at home, and 
that they were to resist by such means as they had, and to 
be identified with liberty, whether in honor or disgrace ; 
simply believing, that, with a just God on their side, they 
ought to triumph : they surely would triumph. 

Thus all human calculation of chances must be thrown to 
the winds. For instance, raw recruits cannot fight veterans ; 
citizen commanders cannot match scientific experienced 
generals; soldiers well dressed, well armed, well fed, and 
promptly paid, must conquer the hungry, barefoot, and 
uncompensated ; superior numbers, with inexhaustible re- 
cruits, must subdue small numbers ; successive defeats must 
finally annihilate a few poor and ill-provisioned men. These 
and a multitude of other military aphorisms, true beyond a 
doubt in a comparison of merely human forces, were all 
utterly at fault in a war of tyranny with God and liberty ; 
and the rapidly-accumulating consciousness of this super- 
human power supplied and revealed the heroism of the 
national life. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PATRIOTISM DEMONSTRATES A SUSTAINED NATIONAL LIFE. 

" In short, it was ultimately owing to this influence of the God of heaven that the 
thoughts, the views, the purposes, the speeches, the writings, and the whole conduct, of 
those who were engaged in this great atfair, were so overruled as to bring into effect the 
desired happy event." — Ciiauncy. 

Love of country is God's provision for promoting the sta- 
bility and regular development of civil institutions. The 
wandering tribes of barbarism make no progress in agricul- 
ture, in the arts or sciences. Scythians, Indians, Gypsies, 
know little of the blessings of home ; and their unnumbered 
generations live and die without the advantages of civiliza- 
tion. They have shown, it is true, enough of preference for 
one land over another to indicate the presence of the ori- 
ginal tendency, but so little as to deprive them of its 
intended practical results, and show, that, in the long ages, 
violence has been done to one of the best provisions of the 
creation. 

Patriotism, or love of country, is perfectly consistent with 
philanthrop}^, or love of the human race. As the best possi- 
ble good to man, as man, is found in the highest development 
of domestic and home institutions, so, on the other hand, the 
strongest, purest love of our own country implies the truest 
devotion to the wants and rig^hts of universal man. There 
is, therefore, never any conflict between real patriotism and 
true philanthropy. In a low state of cultivation, the love 
of country may degenerate into degrading selfishness, and 
give to war all the horrors of barbarism ; but Christian re- 
finement extends all patriotism into the sphere of true 
justice and general benevolence. 



A SUSTAINED NATIONAL LIFE. 24' 



PATRIOTISM, BRITISH, AND THEN AMERICAN. 

The love of country which onr ancestors brought to 
America was essentially British. Of their devotion to the 
fatherland they gave the strongest possible evidence. They 
were British by birth and education ; British of choice. 
They believed heartily that England was the grandest, 
noblest part of earth ; that her wealth, learning, heroism, 
and antiquity made her the centre of the globe, and the 
grand type of civilization. They fully believed in an heredi- 
tary monarchy, and considered devoted loyalty to the crown 
the soul of honor. The upheavals of the Protectorate 
were exceptional. After the surges of passion subsided, they 
longed for a king. Cromwell would have been immensely 
more popular if he had been a sovereign in form, as he was 
in fact. With this love of monarchy was incorporated a 
strong love of liberty, which is as truly and essentially Eng- 
lish as her patriotism. When, therefore, these American 
forefathers endured for long years the oppression of a tyranny 
which was directly opposed to the spirit of Magna Charta 
and the British Constitution, they gave a very strong evi- 
dence of devoted patriotism. They intended to give one 
more, yet stronger. To flee across the ocean, subdue the 
forest and the savages, and yet claim only the rights be- 
longing to British subjects, and, with loyal devotion, hand 
over all their acquisitions of empire to their sovereign, was 
this additional evidence of patriotic devotion to England, 
to which they were pledged in heart and soul. But, in 
course of time, it fully appeared that neither the folly of 
man nor the wisdom of God would allow it. They were 
slowly taught that this was their country ; and, almost im- 
perceptibly, their patriotism passed over from the country 
of their birth to the country of their adoption. 

And a new race of native Americans had risen up here, 
who knew no other country but this. They loved its " bil- 
lowy heights" and delightful vales, its wild forests and its 



248 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

growing towns, its mighty rivers and inland seas ; they 
loved its rocks and snow-capped mountains, its genial skies 
and balmy air, and especially its broad impress of free- 
dom, and stamp of the Infinite everywhere ; and grew great 
in muscle, mind, and heart, as they felt the power of this 
great country in their aspirations and plans. 

The transition made included a revolution in opinions as 
well as in interest. This, Americans began to feel, is our 
country. We found it here waiting for us. God gave it to 
our fathers and to us ; and it belongs to us, and surely not to 
those who denied us the rights of British subjects at home 
and in America. Thus patriotism here became strongly 
identified with love of liberty. Slowly the minds of the 
people awoke to the dangers arising from caste in society 
and the exclusive privileges of the governing classes ; and, 
just in proportion as freedom in this great country became 
real, Americans increased in patriotic devotion. 

The attachment, at first naturally fixed on the physical 
beauty and greatness of the country, passed over to its 
growing institutions. Americans began to love the freedom 
of thought and speech, of the ballot and the press, which had 
grown up here, they hardly knew how. They loved the 
birthplace of their children and the graves of their fiithers, 
but vastly more their rising free schools and their "freedom 
to worship God;" and, if they did acknowledge a foreign 
sovereign, they gloried in the right of electing their own 
legislators, and judging for themselves when the adminis- 
tration of law was just and when it was oppressive. This 
seemed a country made for all these things ; and they loved 
it. American patriotism was, therefore, eminently rational. 
It was not merely of the senses, nor was it merely tradi- 
tional and hereditary. It was discriminating, and hence 
inspiring as a new revelation. Its thinking, its impulses, 
and its possibilities, were new. No such grasp, such ele- 
vation of patriotism, it may be safely affirmed, had ever 
before been known in history. 



A SUSTAINED NATIONAL LIFE. 249 

Let it now be asked," Will this national life be sustained?" 
The answer to this question must be comprehensive and 
far-reaching. It is to be found, not in one period merely, 
but in the whole history and profoundest philosophy of the 
Republic. We shall reach the great fact upon which it 
depends, and state it more formally, hereafter ; but we begin 
the answer here. 

As the life of a new nation has gradually rolled up be- 
fore us, we have marked its beauty and its vigor : but we 
have been compelled instinctively to fear that it would be 
overwhelmed ; that its antagonisms would be too strong 
for its intrinsic power. It was very vigorous during the 
mental conflicts which preceded the war. Would it endure 
the ordeal of blood ? The answer is in part before us. 
The representative battle-scenes of the Revolution have re- 
vealed a heroism which could resist the firmest onsets of 
power, and finally wear out the resolution of despotism. 
But why did it ? Whence this heroism in battle, this pa- 
tience in unparalleled suffering ? 

Precisely here the deep and pervading patriotism of the 
American people presents itself Love of country was at 
first individual. Each man, woman, and child was conscious 
of its presence and growing power. The single citizen 
would have asserted it in some form if he had known he 
was alone, if no other American cared for his country. It 
was, however, most agreeable to find his neighbors possessed 
of the same feeling ; and when the dark hour came on, which 
made each man a hero, and every volunteer feel as if he 
could fight the British nation alone, what thrills of joy 
flashed through the hearts of the country as it began to 
appear that patriotism was the absorbing sentiment of the 
whole people ! At length, it was evident that American pa- 
triotism was organic ; that it was not now the love of Eng- 
land, but first and everywhere the love of America and her 
incipient institutions of liberty. It was not the love of a 
British colony, of a dependency upon a foreign power, but 

32 



250 TELE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

of the new empire of freedom rapidly rising up under the 
guiding influence of a comprehensive Providence. It was 
the patriotism of a new Christian nation : it must, therefore, 
be a strong defence of the national life. 



PATRIOTISM IN OFFICE. 

We have seen the discriminating and energized character 
of American patriotism among the people : let us now in- 
quire what were its manifestations when exalted to rank and 
power. The great leaders of resistance to oppression rise 
up before us as men of giant intellects and astonishing wis- 
dom. Their statesmanship was bewildering to the represen- 
tatives of despotism, who began by despising them. Their 
State-papers and forensic discussions are to-day the admira- 
tion of the world ; but their love of country rises high 
above all other qualities of greatness, and must stand fore- 
most in the explanation of success. 

It must be remembered, that, if the Americans failed to 
vindicate their rights, every member of the Continental 
Congress would be found guilty of treason. When these 
great men calmly took their seats to organize resistance to 
the British army, each one of them knew that he put his life 
in jeopardy; that failure in the contest would require the 
sacrifice of responsible leaders in what must be regarded as 
a grand conspiracy against the British crown. Diplomatic 
agents, and officers of state, would be involved in the general 
ruin. And yet what manly firmness, what self-abandonment, 
do these representative men reveal ! Their country rose 
above all selfish considerations ; and for eight long years 
they stood in the breach, to rise or fall with the rights of 
freemen. 

True, all were not reliable. Men who at first promised 
well showed weakness of mind and nerve when the grand 
crisis came on. The numbers of men who were at their 
posts in the periods of extreme peril sometimes seemed 



A SUSTAINED NATIONAL LIFE. 251 

exceedingly small ; but this made no difference with Wash- 
ington, Jefferson, and Adams, with Franklin, Livingston, and 
Witherspoon. When the immortal Patrick Henry cried, 
" Give me liberty, or give me death," he uttered the sublime 
sentiment of these great statesmen and their compatriots in 
rank, as well as of the American people generally. 

Treason to liberty tested the strength of this patriotic 
devotion. Poverty and suffering made the blaze burn all 
the more brightly. The blandishments of baffled powder 
had no influence ao-ainst its calm assertion and unflinchino; 
vindication. History is slowly bringing to light the wisdom 
of Providence in the elevated Christian leadership of the 
American struggle for liberty. 

In the army, the dreadful sufferings of the rank and file 
were shared by their officers. Men whose exalted position 
would have entitled them to comforts, if not luxuries, en- 
dured long and weary marches, slept on the ground, ate their 
half-rations, or suffered with hunger, all with uncomplain- 
ing dignity. To save their country, no sacrifice was too 
great, no suffering too hard to endure. 

Washington, the grand type of American patriotism, was 
not merely a cool and skilful commander, was not merely 
willing to risk bis life as the most distinguished chief of 
what Enc^land reojarded a treasonable revolt from the authori- 
ty of the crown ; but he was " the father of his country." 
He came forward at the call of Congress, when there was no 
army to command, no treasury whence to draw the support 
of an army if he should be able to organize one ; when the 
art of war and the ability to command must be learned and 
acquired. He took the position of commander-in-chief, and 
held it through the war, refusing all pay, standing firm amid 
jealousy, slander, and treason ; and, when all earthly hope 
seemed to be dying around him, he was found on his knees, 
calmly lifting up his tearful eyes to heaven, praying to God 
to save his bleeding country. This was patriotism : this 
was the embodiment, in a single man, of the feeling and 
determination and hope of the American nation. 



252 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 



THE TRUE INSPIRATION OF AMERICAN PATRIOTISM, 

To understand the strength and patient endurance of this 
love of country, we must refer to the evidence, ah^eady de- 
veloped, of a divine plan to constitute an empire of freedom 
on the Western continent ; we must recall the deep religious 
devotion of our chivalrous and Puritan sires ; we must ap- 
preciate the moulding power of reverence for God, and con- 
secration to his holy service and worship ; and, finally, the 
new, divine inspiration of ideas and principles. These great 
facts were everywhere present as the struggle came on ; and 
they imparted an exaltation to the patriotism of the Revo- 
lution which atheism could never give, nor infidelity com- 
prehend. Controlling public acts recognized it ; deep humil- 
iation and fervent prayer revealed the dependence of the 
nation upon it, and the faith which inspired the masses of 
the people with unconquerable energy. 

On the 6th of July, 1775, the Continental Congress 
concluded a public manifesto in the following memorable 
words : — 

" With an humble confidence in the mercy of the supreme 
and impartial Judge and Ruler of the universe, we most 
devoutly implore his divine goodness to protect us happily 
through this great conflict; to dispose our adversaries to 
reconciliation upon reasonable terms, and thereby relieve 
the empire from the calamities of civil war." 

The twentieth day of the same month was, by order of 
Congress, observed as a day of fiisting, humiliation, and 
prayer, in view of " the present critical, alarming, and ca- 
lamitous state of the colonies." Let us now see how this 
proclamation was received by the immortal Washington and 
the brave army under his command. In the American ar- 
chives, vol. ii., page 1708, we find the following order : — 

"Headquarters, Cambridge, July IG, 1775. 

"The Continental Congress earnestly recommend that 
Thursday next, the 20th inst., be observed by the inhabitants 



A SUSTAINED NATIONAL LIFE. 253 

of all the English colonies upon this continent as a day of 
public humiliation, fasting, and prayer, that they may with 
united hearts and voice unfeignedly confess their sins before 
God, and supplicate the all-wise and merciful Disposer of 
events. The general orders that day to be religiously ob- 
served by the forces under his command exactly in manner 
directed by the proclamation of the Continental Congress. 
It is therefore strictly enjoined on all officers and soldiers 
(not upon duty) to attend divine service at the accustomed 
places of worship, as well in the lines as the encampments 
and quarters ; and it is expected that all those who go to 
worship do take their arms, ammunition, and accoutrements, 
and are prepared for immediate action if called upon. If, in 
the judgment of the officers, the work should appear to be 
in such a state of forwardness as the utmost security of the 
camp requires, they will command their men to abstain from 
all labor upon that solemn day." 

Solemn day, verily. A struggling nation, with their little 
army of heroes mangled and bleeding, under authority of 
Congress and their glorious military chief, all prostrate before 
God, confessing their sins, and imploring help ; they who 
feared not the face of clay, who could bare their bosoms to 
the storm of war, and would bow to no tyrant upon the face 
of the earth, all humbly and reverently kneeling before the 
great Jehovah, — this was the heroism of the Revolution, 
the patriotism which demonstrates a sustained national life. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE DECLARATION ASSERTS AN INDEPENDENT NATIONAL 

LIFE. 

" You will think me transported with enthusiasm ; but I am not. I am well aware of 
the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost us to maintain the declaration ; yet, through 
all the gloom, I can see that the end is more than worth all the means, and that posterity 
will triumph in that day's transaction." — John Adams. 

" Jefferson poured the soul of the continent into the monumental act of Independ- 
ence." — President Stiles. 

Written words must represent facts or principles, or they 
are powerless. Many declarations of independence have 
been promulgated with great rhetorical display ; but they 
have perished with the subsidence of passion and the men 
who gave them origin. 

In like manner, a premature announcement of American 
independence would have brought only disgrace upon her 
suffering people, and ruin to her cause. The declaration 
could only be potential when sustained by great underlying 
realities. It was because the people of these colonies had 
sufficient reasons for separation from Great Britain ; because 
Providence had allowed the institutions of tyranny to exert 
their legitithate influence on minds formed for a higher, 
nobler life ; because, amid the mind-battles of more than a 
century, the shackles of the soul had been so far shaken off, 
that a real independence was felt and lived everywhere from 
Maine to Georgia, from the Atlantic sea-board to the AUe- 
ghanies ; because God had led the people to real self-protec- 
tion, and to all the high functions of government, — that it 
was safe and right to make the declaration. Said Samuel 
Adams, " Is not America already independent ? Why not, 
then, declare it? " 



I 




Gt'iAr STAfESii-ill MB 01/4T&I 



AN INDEPENDENT NATIONAL LIFE. 255 



WISE DELIBERATION AND DIPLOMACY. 

Pausing a little upon the eve of this great event, we may 
behold the strength, the firmness, the self-control, of great 
minds. It is the twenty-sixth day of June, 1775; and the 
Provincial Congress of New York, addressing Washington, 
" from whose abiUties and virtue they were taught to expect 
peace," " declare an accommodation with the mother-coun- 
try to be the fondest wish of each American soul, in the full- 
est assurance, that, upon such an accommodation, he would 
cheerfully resign his trust, and become once more a citizen." 
" 'When we assumed the soldier, we did not lay aside the citi- 
zen,' announced Washington for himself and his colleagues ; 
but, having once drawn the sword, he postponed the thought 
of private life to the ' establishment of American liberty on 
the most firm and solid foundation.' " * 

The Assembly of the future Empire State proposed a plan 
of adjustment between the colonies and Great Britain. It 
insisted on every right, with regard to legislation, taxation, 
and religion, heretofore demanded, excepting the regulation 
of trade. This it conceded to the home government ; pro- 
posing also, upon proper conditions, to help in the general 
defence. Then they instructed their delegates in the Conti- 
nental Congress to " use every effort for compromising this 
unhappy quarrel ; so that, if our well-meant endeavors shall 
fail of efiect, we may stand irreproachable by our own con- 
sciences in the last solemn appeal to the God of battles." 

The other colonies met the stern issues of that great 
epoch in history in a similar spirit, though not all with the 
same caution. It has been suggested that New England and 
the South had less to dread from the British fleet and from 
the war than the commercial state and city of New York ; 
and that this, in part, explains the difference in demonstra- 
tive independence. This difference would, however, soon 
disappear ; and John Adams and John Jay would take their 

* Bancroft, viii. 34. 



256 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

places side by side in the great struggle which had not yet 
reached its crisis. 

In the mean time, as danger increased, Congress became 
more explicit. Read these clear, strong words : " Why should 
we enumerate our injuries in detail? By one statute, it is 
declared that Parliament can of right make laws to bind us 
in all cases whatever. What is to defend us asfainst so un- 
limited a power? Not a single man of those who assume it 
is chosen by us, and an American revenue would lighten their 
own burdens in proportion as they increase ours." " These 
colonies now feel the complicated calamities of lire, sword, 
and famine. We are reduced to the alternative of clioosinii; 
an unconditional submission to irated ministers, or resistance 
by force. The latter is our choice. We have counted the 
cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as volun- 
tary slavery. Our cause is just, our union is perfect, our in- 
ternal resources are great ; and, if necessary, foreign assist- 
ance is undoubtedly attainable. Before God and the world 
we declare, that the arms we have been compelled by 
our enemies to assume we will employ for the preservation 
of our liberties, being with one mind resolved to die free- 
men rather than live slaves. We have not raised armies 
with designs of separating from Great Britain, and establish- 
ing independent States : necessity has not yet driven us 
into that desperate measure. We exhibit to mankind the 
spectacle of a people attacked by unprovoked enemies, with- 
out any imputation or even suspicion of offence. In our own 
native land, in defence of the freedom that is our birth- 
right, for the protection of our property against violence 
actually offered, we have taken up arms. We shall lay them 
down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggres- 
sors, and all danger of their being renewed shall be removed ; 
and not before." 

John Adams would have followed this firm announcement 
by an immediate declaration of independence. Franklin 
revealed his opinion by writing to Strahan, through whom 



AN INDEPENDENT NATIONAL LIFE. 257 

he had heretofore comraiinicated with Lord North, the fol- 
lowing burning words : " You are a member of Parliament, 
and one of that majority which has doomed my country to 
destruction. You have begun to burn our towns, and mur- 
der our people. Look upon your hands: they are stained 
with the blood of your relations ! You and I were long 
friends : you are now my enemy, and I am yours." But he 
did not resist the opinion of the considerate Jay, and another 
appeal was made to the king. It was written by Dickinson 
of Pennsylvania, and contained these words : " We beseech 
your Majesty to direct some mode by which the united 
applications of your faithful colonists to the throne, in pur- 
suance of their common councils, may be improved into a 
happy and permanent reconciliation; and that, in the mean 
time, measures may be taken for preventing the further 
destruction of the lives of your Majesty's subjects ; and that 
such statutes as more immediately distress any of your 
Majesty's colonies may be repealed." Surely this was suffi- 
ciently humble and deferential. But the people of England 
must not interpret the petition for justice as the language 
of craven submission. The American people would do 
nothing now as colonies. They were a nation ; and their 
Congress alone could negotiate terms of peace. Their 
address to the British nation was calm and unanswerable. 
Their thanks to the officers of the city of London, who 
opposed a manly resistance to the despotic measures of the 
crown and parliament, were expressed in language most 
dignified and sincere. The American Congress would not 
be misunderstood ; and thus they write : " North America 
wishes most ardently for a lasting connection with Great 
Britain on terms of just and equal liberty ; less than which, 
generous minds will not offer, nor brave and free ones 
receive." 

Evidently it was no part of the scheme of our fathers to 
erect an independent government in the Western hemi- 
sphere. They were sybjects of the British crown ; and so 

33 



2 58 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

intended, with unaffected loyalty, to remain. But that Prov- 
idence which had guided them through all their wonderful 
career unfolded to them their high destination gradually. 
Dependence upon a foreign government was evidently 
incompatible with the divine plans of a model government 
for the instruction of the race. God would conduct the 
people of the new nation through such discipline and suffer- 
ings as would lead them to a clear understanding of his pur- 
poses, and secure them from the fatal error into which 
such pliable, brilliant men as Dickinson would lead them. 
It required yet a full year of stern, cruel, bloody war, to 
bring the masses up to the position occupied by their daring 
leaders, and produce the Declaration. 

Washington reached the camp around Boston. He re- 
ceived the enthusiastic congratulations of officers and civil- 
ians with true diffidence and noble dignity. " Now be strong 
and very courageous," said Trumbull, governor of Connecti- 
cut. " May the God of the armies of Israel give you wisdom 
and fortitude, cover your head in the day of battle and 
danger, and convince our enemies that all their attempts to 
deprive these colonies of their rights and liberties are vain ! " 
Washington replies, with the calmness of a great Christian 
statesman and warrior, "The cause of our common country 
calls us both to an active and dangerous duty : Divine Provi- 
dence, which wisely orders the affiiirs of men, will enable us 
to discharge it with fidelity and success." 

In the mean time, Richard Pennmade all possible haste to 
cross the water, and lay the humble petition, drawn up by 
Dickinson, at the foot of the throne ; but George the Third 
would not see him. " The king and his cabinet," said Suf- 
folk, "are determined to listen to nothinsr from the illegal 
Congress, to treat with the colonies only one by one, and in 
no event to recognize them in any form of association." By 
every act, and in the most vehement language, the king 
" showed his determination to prosecute his measures, and 
force the deluded Americans into submission." At length, 



AN INDEPENDENT NATIONAL LIFE. 259 

his insulting proclamation, which followed, but did not deign 
to be an answer to, the humble petition borne by Penn, 
reached the colonies. Thoughtful men said, " While Ameri- 
ca is still on her knees, the king aims a dagger at her heart." 
Woman felt her indignation roused. The wife of John Adams 
wrote to her husband, when her house was a hospital, " This 
intelligence will make a plain path for you, though a dan- 
gerous one. I could not join to-day in the petitions of our 
worthy pastor for a reconciliation between our no longer 
parent State, but tyrant State, and these colonies. Let us 
separate : they are unworthy to be our brethren. Let us re- 
nounce them ; and instead of supplications, as formerly, for 
their prosperity and happiness, let us beseech the Almighty 
to blast their counsels, and bring to nought all their devices." 
James Warren wrote to Samuel Adams in Congress, " The 
king's silly proclamation will put an end to petitioning. 
Movements worthy of your august body are expected, — 
a declaration of independence, and treaties with foreign 
powers." 

Congress felt that the hour of final separation was at 
hand, and advised New Hampshire and South Carolina to 
set up State governments, independent of Great Britain, 
" during the continuance of the present dispute." 

Pennsylvania, under the lead of Dickinson, while the great 
Franklin stood up alone for the rights of America, said to 
her delegates in Congress, " We strictly enjoin you, that you, 
in behalf of this colony, dissent from and utterly reject any 
propositions, should such be made, that may cause or lead 
to a separation from our mother-country, or a change of the 
form of this government." Delaware, Maryland, and New 
Jersey, seemed to be swayed by the powerful influence of 
Pennsylvania, and reached similar results. Under these cir- 
cumstances, Congress could not enact its own views. They 
must wait for the people, the only real source of power 
here: but they appointed Harrison, Franklin, Johnson, 
Dickinson, and Jay a secret " committee for the sole purpose 



260 THE GREAT KEPUBLIC. 

of corresponding with friends in Great Britain, Ireland, and 
other parts of the world;" and funds were appropriated 
" for the payment of such agents as they might send on this 
service." Jefferson said, " There is not in the British Em- 
pire a man who more cordially loves a union with Great 
Britain than I do ; but, by the God that made me, I will 
cease to exist before I yield to a connection on such terms 
as the British Parliament propose : and in this I speak the 
sentiments of America." 

Thomas Paine, before he became a blasphemous infidel, 
amono; other words which rano; throuo-h the hearts of the 
people, said, " Every thing that is right or natural pleads for 
separation. Even the distance at which the Almighty hath 
placed England and America is a strong and natural proof 
that the authority of the one over the other was never the 
design of Heaven. It is not in the power of Britain or of 
Europe to conquer America, if she does not conquer herself 
by delay and timidity." 

The sixth day of April, 1776, witnessed the close of the 
colonial system, and the first formal act of independence. 
The ports of the Old Thirteen were, by act of Congress, 
opened to all the world " not subject to the King of Great 
Britain." 

In May following. Congress adopted, against all tempo- 
rizers, a proposition made by John Adams, that " each one 
of the united colonies, wdiere no government sufficient to 
the exigencies of their affairs had as 3'et been established, 
should adopt such government as would, in the opinion of 
the representatives of the people, best conduce to the hap- 
piness and safety of their constituents in particular, and of 
America in general." A committee, consisting of John 
Adams, Edward Rutledge, and Richard Henry Lee, was then 
appointed to draught a preamble to the resolution. In 
this we discover the bold and determined spirit of John 
Adams, who held Lee firmly by his side. The preamble 
declared it to be "absolutely irreconcilable with reason and 



AN INDEPENDENT NATIONAL LIFE. 261 

good conscience for the people of these colonies now to 
take the oaths and affirmations necessary for the support of 
any government under the crown of Great Britain; and 
that it was necessary that the exercise of every kind of 
authority under the crown should be totally suppressed, 
and all the powers of government exerted under the 
authority of the colonies, for the preservation of their 
peace, and their defence against their enemies." 

This was really the whole question of independence, and 
it called out a most vigorous debate. Some men of true 
patriotism indorsed it in principle and fact, but deemed it 
premature ; others denounced it, as leading to immediate 
anarchy and ruin ; but the majority rose to the greatness of 
the occasion, and adopted it. " The Gordian knot is cut," 
said John Adams, as he thought seriously and profoundly 
upon the great issues pending upon that action, and the 
highly responsible part he had taken in securing it. 

In the mean time, Virginia was preparing to advance to 
the front in the leadership of this grand movement. One 
hundred and thirty of her most distinguished men were 
chosen by the people to assemble in convention, and take 
the charge of their provincial and civil rights in this impor- 
tant crisis. On the fifteenth day of May, 1776, resolutions 
reported by Archibald Carey were adopted unanimously 
(one hundred and twelve delegates being present), in which 
the State of Virginia decreed '' that their delegates in Con- 
gress be instructed to propose to that body to declare the 
united colonies free and independent States, absolved from 
all allegiance or dependence upon the crown or parliament 
of Great Britain ; and that they give the assent of this col- 
ony to such declaration, and to measures for forming for- 
eign alhances and a confederation of the colonies: provided 
that the power of forming government for, and the regula- 
tion of the internal concerns of, each colony, be left to the 
respective colonial legislatures." 

Her famous Declaration of Rights, reported from a com- 



262 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

mittee of thirty-two illustrious men, including such names 
as Carey, Henry, Blair, Randolph, Madison, and Mason, was 
soon adopted ; and " Virginia presented herself at the bar 
of the world, and gave the name and fame of her sons as 
hostages that her public life should show a likeness to the 
highest ideas of right and equal freedom among men."* 

It was the will of the people of Pennsylvania that this 
colonial legislature, whose functions had expired by the act 
of the Revolution, and whose instructions, under the influ- 
ence of the proprietary and the lead of Dickinson, had for- 
bidden her delegates to vote for the declaration of independ- 
ence, should be superseded by their own representatives. 
This great change was announced by a gathering of more 
than four thousand people, under the lead of John Bayard 
and Daniel Roberdeau ; and the convention and representa- 
tives in Congress came forward to place this great common- 
wealth in harmony with her sister States and the spirit of 
the age. 

Finally, the maturer judgment of the nation was calmly 
expressed by her greatest representative citizen, the illus- 
trious Washington, in these few calm, decisive words : "A 
reconciliation with Great Britain is impracticable, and 
would be in the highest degree detrimental to the true 
interest of America. When 1 lirst took the command of the 
army, I abhorred the idea of independence ; but I am now 
fully convinced that nothing else will save us." 

On the seventh day of June, Richard Henry Lee, in the 
name of Virginia, offered in Congress the decisive resolu- 
tion, " That these united colonies are, and of right ought to 
be, free and independent States ; that they are absolved 
from all allegiance to the British crown ; and that a plan of 
confederation be prepared, and transmitted to the respective 
colonies for their consideration and approbation." 

After careful thought, the final action on this momentous 
question was postponed until the second day of July. In 

* Bancroft, viii. 383, 



AN INDEPENDENT NATIONAL LIFE. 263 

the interval, great events had occurred. Our struggling 
army had been driven from Canada ; Howe, with forty-five 
ships " laden with troops," had approached the coast ; the 
whole British fleet, with a strong land-force, had been gal- 
lantly defeated in the harbor of Charleston by a small force 
under command of the brave Moultrie, in spite of the incom- 
petency and vacillation, not to say treachery, of his supe- 
rior officer. Gen. Lee ; and the delegates in Congress of 
twelve of the old thirteen States appeared in their seats, 
with instructions fresh from the people, to declare the sepa- 
ration of these colonies from the British crown. And on this 
memorable day the representatives of these twelve colonies, 
without a dissenting vote, did resolve, " That these United 
Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent 
States ; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the 
British crown; and that all political connection between 
them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, 
totally dissolved." 

"At the end of this great day," says Bancroft, "the mind 
of John Adams heaved like the ocean after a storm." " The 
greatest question," he wrote, " was decided, which was ever 
debated in America ; and a greater, perhaps, never was nor 
will be decided among men. When I look back to 1761, and 
run through the series of political events, the chain of 
causes and effects, I am surprised at the suddenness as well 
as greatness of this revolution. Britain has been filled with 
folly, and America with wisdom." 

Jefferson, John Adams, Franklin, Sherman, and Robert R. 
Livingston, had been appointed to prepare a Declaration in 
accordance with the resolution of independence offered by 
Lee, seconded by John Adams, and adopted, with an appro- 
priate addition, on the second day of July. They brought 
forward their report. Thomas Jefferson was the honored 
writer of this immortal document, which, with but one im- 
portant amendment, was adopted, as he wrote it, by the 
representatives of twelve States without a dissenting vote. 



264 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

The delegates from New York still waited for instructions, 
soon to come from a convention of the people; but her 
master-minds, with Jay at their head, most heartily con- 
curred in the great act, to which, as soon as permitted, they 
put their names. Let us now read and carefully ponder this 
Magna Charta of American liberty. 

THE DECLARATION. 

" When, in the course of human events, it becomes neces- 
sary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have 
connected them with another, and to assume among the 
powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which 
the laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent 
respect for the opinions of mankind requires that they should 
declare the causes which impel them to the separation. 

" We hold these truths to be self-evident, — that all men are 
created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with 
certain inalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness ; that, to secure these rights, 
governments are instituted among men, deriving their just 
powers from the consent of the governed ; that, Avhen- 
ever any form of government becomes destructive of these 
ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and 
to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such 
principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them 
shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. 
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long estab- 
lished should not be changed for light and transient causes ; 
and, accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are 
more disposed to sulfer, while evils are sulTerabie, than to 
right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are 
accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpa- 
tions, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design 
to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it 
is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide 



AN INDEPENDENT NATIONAL LIFE. 265 

new guards for their future security. Such has been the 
patient sufferance of these colonies, and such is now the 
necessity which constrains them to alter their former system 
of government. The history of the present King of Great 
Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all 
having, in direct object, the establishment of an absolute 
tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be sub- 
mitted to a candid world : — 

" He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome, 
and necessary for the public good. 

" He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of imme- 
diate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their 
operation till his assent should be obtained ; and, when so 
suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. 

" He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation 
of large districts of people, unless those people would relin- 
quish the right of representation in the legislature, — a right 
inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only. 

" He has called together legislative bodies at places un- 
usual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their 
public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into 
compliance with his measures. 

" He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for 
opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of 
the people. 

" He has refused, for a longtime after such dissolutions, to 
cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, 
incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at 
large for their exercise ; the State remaining, in the mean 
time, exposed to all the danger of invasion from without, 
and convulsions within. 

" He has endeavored to prevent the population of these 
States ; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturaliza- 
tion of foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their 
migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appro- 
priations of lands. 

34 



266 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

" He has obstructed the administration of justice by refus- 
ing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. 

" He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the 
tenure of their offices and the amount and payment of their 
salaries. 

"He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent 
hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out 
their substance. 

" He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing 
armies, without the consent of our legislatures. 

" He has affected to render the military independent of 
and superior to the civil power. 

" He has combined with others [that is, with the Lords and 
Commons of Britain] to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign 
to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving 
his assent to their acts of pretended legislation, — for quarter- 
ing large bodies of armed troops among us ; for protecting 
them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders 
which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States ; 
for cutting off our trade with all parts of the world ; for im- 
posing taxes on us without our consent ; for depriving us, 
in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury ; for trans- 
porting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences ; 
for abolishing the free system of English law in a neighbor- 
ing province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, 
and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an 
example and fit instrument for introducing the same abso- 
lute rule into these colonies ; for taking away our charters, 
abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering, fundamen- 
tally, the forms of our government ; for suspending our 
own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with 
power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 

" He has abdicated government here by declaring us out 
of his protection, and waging war against us. 

"He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt 
our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. 



AN INDEPENDENT NATIONAL LIFE. 267 

" He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreic-n 
mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, 
and tyranny already begun, with circumstances of cruelty and 
perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and 
totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. 

" He has constrained our fellow-citizens taken captive on 
the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become 
the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall 
themselves by their hands, 

" He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and 
has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers 
the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare 
is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and 
conditions. 

" In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned 
for redress in the most humble terms : our petitions have 
been answered only by repeated injury. A prince whose 
character is thus marked by every act which may define a 
tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. 

"Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British 
brethren. We have warned them, from time to time, of 
attempts made by their legislature to extend an unwarranta- 
ble jurisdiction over us ; we have reminded them of the cir- 
cumstances of our emigration and settlement here ; we have 
appealed to their native justice and magnanimity ; and we 
have conjured them, by the ties of our common kindred, 
to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably inter- 
rupt our connections and correspondence. They, too, have 
been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. We 
must therefore acquiesce in the necessity which denounces 
our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of man- 
kind, enemies in war ; in peace, friends. 

"We therefore, the representatives of the United States of 
America in General Congress assembled, appealing to the 
Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our inten- 
tions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good 



268 THE GEEAT REPUBLIC. 

people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that 
these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and 
INDEPENDENT States ; that they are absolved from all alle- 
giance to the British crown; and that all political connection 
between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought 
to be, totally dissolved ; and that, as free and independent 
States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, 
contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other 
acts and things which independent States may of right do. 
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance 
on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge 
to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred 
honor." 

superior wisdom. 

Pausing to consider the history and character of this 
great State-paper, we are impressed with the evidences of 
superhuman wisdom, under the guidance of which these 
results were reached. 

If clear-sighted statesmanship had prevailed in the Brit- 
ish Parliament, and especially if a wise sovereign had been 
on the throne of England, there would have been no hope 
of American independence. As we have seen, the Ameri- 
cans might have been easily conciliated. They had no idea 
of separating from England. It was necessary to bring 
them to this result by the severest trials. They must be 
made to feel the weight of oppression, almost unparalleled 
in the history of freemen, before they could be brought to 
the conviction that this was the will of Providence. We 
are inclined to accept the construction of Rev. George Duf- 
field, pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, 
in his famous sermon, with John Adams for a hearer, when 
the cause of independence was trembling in the balance in 
Pennsylvania. lie " drew a parallel between George the 
Third and Pharaoh, and inferred that the same provi- 
dence of God which had rescued the Israelites intended to 



AN INDEPENDENT NATIONAL LIFE. 269 

free the Americans " * Beyond a doubt, the providence of 
God alone will explain this infatuation, this judicial blind- 
ness. 

How clearly we mark the hand of God in the patience 
which delayed this act of formal separation until every fact 
and principle it involved had been examined over and over 
in the most searching discussions, and the whole nation had 
been penetrated by a conviction of its high justice and 
inevitable necessity ! Had a few rash leaders brought on 
this contest prematurely, or a few headstrong men enacted 
and proclaimed the overt act of independence, the self- 
respect and caution of the American people would have 
rejected it, and assisted in bringing its authors to condign 
punishment. What sovereign control there must have been 
over all resentments, restraining all angry passions, and pre- 
venting all rashness, until the time for action had fully 
come, — until the catalogue of grievances, such as no people 
under heaven had ever suffered, was completely fall, and the 
vindication of the declaration was beyond the reach of a 
doubt! 

What majestic minds rose up, under God, to take the 
lead ; to show, by the calmest, clearest statesmanship, that 
not a single step was taken but as the result of a necessity 
forced upon the people by the arbitrary acts of the British 
government ; to be of the people, and yet the leaders of 
the people in the midst of the storm ; to define the rights of 
the American people, not as demanded by accident or pas- 
sion, but as based upon immutable principles ; and coolly 
advance, step by step, in the way to independence, amid 
the provocations of tyranny and the carnage of war, only 
as Providence clearly opened the way ! God makes great 
men for great occasions. He gave to suffering, bleeding 
America her Adams and Jefferson, her Lee and Rutledge, 
her Jay and Franklin, her Marion and Washington, with 
their compeers in patriotism and wisdom ; raising them far 

* BaiuToft, viii. 385. 



270 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

above the ordinary level of even great men in all the high 
qualities which prepared them to grapple with the problems 
of their times. 

And the principles of the great Declaration had been slowly 
evolved from the chaos of anarchy and despotism, during 
a period of more than three hundred years, under the same 
great Providence. So distinctly had they been written upon 
the current history of civil governments and religion, that 
plain people saw them, and rendered them into their own 
dialect. When, in May, 1776, Virginia was in her transition 
state from dependence to independence, and her people were 
electing and instructing the delegates to her assembly of ' 
freemen, these strange words came from the people of Buck- 
ingham County, and fell upon the ears of its delegates, Charles 
Patterson and John Cahill : " We instruct you to cause a 
total separation from Great Britain to take place as soon as 
possible ; and a constitution to be established, with a full 
representation, and free and frequent elections. As Ameri- 
ca is the last country of the world which has contended for 
her liberty, so she may be the most free and happy, taking 
the advantage of her situation and strength, and having the 
experience of all before to profit by. The Supreme Being 
hath left it in our power to choose what government we 
please for our civil and religious happiness : good govern- 
ment, and the prosperity of mankind, can alone be in the 
divine intention. We pray, therefore, that, under the superin- 
tending providence of the Ruler of the universe a govern- 
ment may be established in America, the most free, happy, 
and permanent that human wisdom can contrive and the 
perfection of man maintain." Let the reader look at this 
profound Christian revelation of the philosophy of freedom 
and government: "The Supreme Being hath left it in our 
power to choose what government we please for our civil 
and religious happiness; good government, and the prosperity 
of mankind, can alone be in the divine intention : " and prayer 
to " the Supreme Ruler of the universe " for the superintend- 



AN INDEPENDENT NATIONAL LIFE. 271 

ing care is indispensable to the formation and maintenance of 
good government. Oh, this is splendid ! How devoutly we 
adore the Spirit above and around and through all, who gave 
to the minds of this new providential nation so clear and 
divine an idea of the advanced position now to be assumed 
in the development of human destiny. 

It is delightful to read from the pen of the great civil 
commander of the forces of independence, John Adams, as 
his heart glowed over the great irrevocable resolution of the 
2d of July, " It is the will of Heaven that the two coun- 
tries should be sundered forever. It may be the will of 
Heaven that America shall suffer calamities still more wast- 
ing, and distresses yet more dreadful. If this is to be the 
case, the furnace of affliction produces refinement in States, 
as well as individuals ; but I submit all my hopes and fears 
to an overruling Providence, in which, unfashionable as the 
faith may be, I firmly believe." 

Thus the great wisdom, which alone could so order the new 
Republic as to render its cause successful, is seen by the 
American people to be from above ; and the extraordinary 
character of our great charter of liberty is clearly explained. 
When, for our separate and equal station among the nations 
of the earth, our patriotic fathers refer to " Nature and to 
Nature's God," and they say, " We hold these truths to be 
self evident, — that all men are created equal ; that they are 
endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights ; 
that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- 
ness ; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted 
among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of 
the governed," — we are led, by light from the celestial 
world, into the very depths of civil and political wisdom, and 
are put in possession of the profoundest principles of right 
and freedom ever known to man, — a power which would 
ultimately destroy all the forms of oppression and injus- 
tice which the infirmities of men, or the capital wrongs 
of our future constitution, might leave amongst us. Well 



272 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

might tliese sages of the great Revolution, when they were 
about to pledge their lives, their fortunes, and sacred honor 
"for the support of this Declaration," solemnly appeal to "the 
Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of their in- 
tentions," and assume their high and sacred responsibiUties 
" with a firm reliance on the protection of Divlne Providence." 

Thus have we ascertained that the Declaration reveals a 
national life, independent of Great Britain, but humbly 
reliant upon the arm of God. 

How utterly unlike the tendencies of despotism, away 
from God, and hence, of necessitj^, away from political wis- 
dom ! How clearly does the rule of a divine Sovereign 
exalt the thoughts of a free people to firm faith in his direc- 
tion, and the ultimate triumph of the right ! 

The breadth and reach of the great " Declaration " can 
be distinctly seen from this stand-point alone. It was by 
inspiration from Heaven that " Jefferson poured the soul of 
the continent into the monumental act of independence." 



CHAPTER YI. 
DISCIPLINE INSURES A VIGOROUS NATIONAL LIFE. 

" These adventurous worthies, animated by subliraer prospects, dearly purchased this 
land : they and their posterity have defended it with unknown cost, in continual jeopardy 
of their lives, and with their blood." — Samuel Cooke. 

We value that most which costs us most. Whatever 
comes to us without a struggle, without trials, we are likely 
to part with without regrets. But blessings gained by years 
of toil and suffering we hold as inexpressibly valuable to us, 
and would make great sacrifices to retain. Hence it was that 
American liberties were so dear to the brave men of the Revo- 
lution. They knew their cost, and clung to them with the 
utmost tenacity. Hence the immensely higher estimate we 
place upon our noble institutions since our recent death- 
struggle to defend them. American history ought to explain 
to all men, with sufficient distinctness, the reasons for the 
depth and glow of American patriotism. 

Discipline is strength. The unused muscle is without 
power ; but the arm of the blacksmith is vigorous and able. 
The neglected mind is feeble, and an object of pity ; but the 
mental vigor of the scholar commands our respect and 
admiration. The heart unaccustomed to virtue or piety is 
easily captivated by vice ; but the practised Christian is a. 
moral hero in the conflicts of temptation and sin. 

So the life of a nation springing up by sudden and suc- 
cessful revolution is effeminate and temporary ; but the life 
which passes with severe trials from generation to generation 
M-hich wears for aoronizino^ years its o-allins: chains, and bai^- 
ties its way out of inthralment amid the sufferings of bloo*;, 



274 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

and feels in its progress to power all the pressure which mal- 
ice can inspire, is likely to endure. It moves on to higher 
rank and mightier conflicts with a vigor which no easy life 
could insure. 

TRIALS FROM POVERTY. 

War is enormously expensive ; and one of the first prob- 
lems of belligerent powers is how to subsist an army. Six 
hours cannot pass before demands will be made upon the 
commissariat which would startle an inexperienced man. 

When the American people took up arms in defence of 

their liberties, they had no treasury, no funds. Before there 

could be any thing for the military chest, some plan of 

finance must be devised that would actually create funds. 

The colonies first in the struggle immediately began the 

ruinous but apparently inevitable policy of issuing bills of 

credit. They could be used at first with some success ; but 

they were not money. They were promises to pay ; and, in 

proportion as their redemption in specie became difficult or 

impossible, they depreciated, and finally became vaUieless. 

Congress reluctantly adopted this dangerous policj', which, 

while it w^ould postpone for a while the demand for hard 

money, could not prevent its return w^ith greatly increased 

urgency. The only dependence of the forming nation was 

upon the colonies ; and their embarrassments on their own 

account seriously interfered with the financial credit based 

upon their local resources. In June, 1775, Congress, at the 

suo-Q-estion of New York, issued two millions of continental 

bills of credit for the immediate relief of the army: l)ut 

this was very soon exhausted ; and as it was exchanged lor 

necessary supplies, like the colonial bills, it soon began to be 

regarded as something less than money. The Canadians 

could not be induced to take continental money ; and our 

army in the North was subsisted with the greatest difficulty. 

For the rest, the only expedient was to issue more paper-bills; 

aud in a year and a half they had risen to twenty mill'ons. 



A VIGOROUS NATIONAL LIFE. 275 

The credit of this money had been quite well kept up by 
the patriotism of the people and the reputation of our 
distinguiyhed men ; but it had at length become so abun- 
dant, that no existing power could prevent its depreciation. 
An attempt to loan five millions at four per cent; the experi- 
ment of a lottery; the authority of Congress given to Wash- 
ington to punisli all who refused to receive the nation's 
money, and thus disparage continental credit ; and the 
attempt of a New-England convention to establish by law 
the prices of necessary commodities, — all showed the public 
distress, while they afforded very inadequate relief It was 
quite in vain for Congress to resolve that their bills " ought 
to pass current in all payments, trade, and dealings, and be 
deemed equal in value to the same nominal sums in Spanish 
dollars;" that those who refused them were "enemies of the 
United States ; " and to menace offenders with " forfeitures 
and other penalties," The traders could invent methods of 
evading all such regulations. If a piece of paper was not a 
dollar, and no man would give a dollar for it, no law could 
make it buy a dollar's worth Of provisions. 

In the mean time, the army was often driven to the great- 
est extremes of suffering. The demands of nature justified 
unlawful seizures of food ; the people were indulgent ; and 
various providential resources preserved our poor soldiers 
from actual starvation. 

In March, 1778, after having issued ten millions, then 
two millions, then a million, and then another million, of 
continental bills of credit, the depreciation became so alarm- 
ing, that renewed efforts to obtain a loan became indispen- 
sable. The public money sank to three or four to one. In 
these times of distress, men were found who were " endeav- 
oring by every means of oppression, sharping, and extor- 
tions, to procure enormous gains ; " and commissaries were 
authorized to seize and receipt for necessary provisions 
"purchased up or engrossed by any person with a view of 
selling the same." We blush for our race at these revela- 



276 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

tions of intense meanness ; and, as we meet these creatures 
in human form in the history of other times and our own, 
we feel that the halter of Cromwell ought to be the protec- 
tion of riorht. 

Washington burned with indignation at these outrages in 
Pennsylvania. To Reed he wrote, " It gives me very sincere 
pleasure to find that the Assembly is so well disposed to second 
your endeavors in bringing those murderers of our cause — 
the monopolizers, forestallers, and engrossers — to condign 
punishment. It is much to be lamented that each State, long 
ere this, has not hunted them down as pests to society, and 
the greatest enemies we have to the happiness of America. 
I would to God that some one of the more atrocious in each 
State were hung in gibbets upon a gallows five times as 
high as that prepared for Haman ! No punishment, in my 
opinion, is too severe for the man who can build his great- 
ness upon his covmtry's ruin." 

" Laws unworthy the character of infant republics," said 
Congress, " are become necessary to supply the defects of 
public virtue, and to correct the vices of some of her sons." 
For, after government had purchased clothing of some of 
these sharpers in Boston " at the most extravagant rate of 
from ten to eighteen hundred per cent," they demanded pay 
before they would deliver the goods ; "thereby adding to ex- 
tortion the crime of wounding the public credit," " mani- 
festing a disposition callous to the feelings of humanity, and 
untouched by the severe sufferings of their countrymen, 
exposed to a winter's campaign in defence of the common 
liberties of their country." The accusations in this particu- 
lar instance were denied, and probably the goods were really 
of more A'alue than any amount of continental money; 
but the bitter complaints of Congress show the extreme of 
sufiering in the army and the nation for the want of means 
to clothe and feed the men who were exposing life and en- 
during incredible hardships to preserve the life of liberty. 

Sixty-seven millions of dollars in continental paper-money 



A VIGOROUS NATIONAL LIFE. 277 

were expended during the year 1778, raising the aggregate 
amount outstanding to $113,456,269; and the depreciation 
was six and eight dollars to one. 

In May, 1780, a committee from Congress visited the 
camp : and from their report we learn " that the army was 
live months unpaid ; that it seldom had more than six days 
provisions in advance, and was, on several occasions, for sun- 
dry successive days, without meat; that the army was des- 
titute of forage ; that the medical department had neither 
sugar, tea, chocolate, wine, nor spirits ; and that every 
department was without money, or even the shadow of 
credit." 

We need not pursue this subject further. We all under- 
stand that the currency of the nation, raised at length to 
$369,547,027, was finally valueless ; and we may see the 
severity of the trials through which, in consequence, the 
nation was compelled to pass ; what shiverings from cold, 
and gnawings of hunger, tested the fortitude of our brave 
soldiers ; what sufferings of their wives and little ones, as 
the means of their scanty subsistence became worthless on 
their hands ; what demands upon economy checked all dis- 
position to luxury among the great civilians and warriors, 
who stood together, a colossal tower of strength and wisdom, 
during those days of peril ; what grand lessons of financial 
skill, and finally what trust in Providence, were taught this 
nation by the extreme poverty of her people, her States, 
and her General Government. 



TRIALS FROM DISLOYALTY AND TREASON. 

Some men there were whose mental processes could not 
keep up with the progress of events. They were English- 
men by birth and in spirit, and Royalists from principle and 
habit. They were " Tories " of course, honest let us trust, 
and yet none the less enemies to the American nation in its^ 
struggles for independence. Others were stupid, and had no 



278 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

power to understand the nature of the contest ; craven cow- 
ards, with no intellectual ability to discover the superior 
safety of the right, and that the right was with the Ameri- 
can Republic. They were "Tories" because they thought 
the king was sure to triumph in the conflict with a few 
feeble colonists, without an army, without a navy, without 
veteran officers, or money to procure the materials of war. 
They were excessively impudent, and brutally cruel. 

Here was a source of the greatest trial and dano:er. In 
New York, in New Jersey, throughout the South, and all 
along the Northern frontier, they were spies, mingling with 
our forces ; detecting and revealing to our enemies the plans 
of every campaign ; harboring and feeding the British, and 
withholding, whenever it was possible, the means of subsist- 
ence from their brethren in the American army ; conducting 
the secret or public expeditions of the enemy through 
routes otherwise unknown, and impracticable to them ; and 
not unfrequently, with their own hands, applying the torch 
to the houses of their suffering neighbors. They became 
the instinctive allies of the merciless savages, and joined in 
their shouts of triumph, reeking in the blood of their own 
brethren. These internal foes must be met and conquered, 
must be tracked to their hiding-places, and overwhelmed 
with disaster and disgrace, at the same time that the vete- 
rans of Clinton and Ilowe, Burgoyne and Cornwallis, must 
be met and conquered in the field. How sensibly, then, did 
Hawley write to Gerr}^, " Can we subsist, did any State ever 
subsist, without exterminating traitors? It is amazingly 
wonderful, that, having no capital punishment for our intes- 
tine enemies, we have not been utterly ruined before now." 

When the loyal people of New York were rejoicing over 

the Declaration of Independence, " a large number of the 

wealthier citizens looked on with distrust; and the Epis- 

^copal clergy showed their dissatisfaction by shutting up the 

churches." * 

* liildrutli, iii. 141. 



A VIGOEOUS NATIONAL LIFE. 279 

When Howe, the British commander, entered Philadelphia 
in triumph, "he found many to welcome him; among others, 
Duche, the late chaplain of Congress, who presently sent a 
letter to Washington, advising him to give over the ungodly 
cause in which he was engaged," * 

This great commander, while he bore upon his heart the 
burden of the war, with all the sufferings of his soldiers, 
with whom he endured every deprivation as a father, was 
obliged to know that he was the object of cruel jealousy, 
and that, even in Congress, men were forming combinations 
for his overthrow. Richard Henry Lee and Samuel Adams 
save influence to the disaffection towards Washino;ton. The 
Pennsylvanians, smarting under the mortification of losing 
Philadelphia, sought to strengthen the increasing prejudice. 
Mifllin lent his splendid abilities to ripen the plot. Gates, 
who aspired to be commander-in-chief, corresponded with 
Mifflin and Conway, w^ith the view of hastening the down- 
fall of Washington. And what was his offence ? Simply 
that he did not render his feeble band of fiimished continen- 
tals and militia everywhere superior to the well-fed and 
well-clothed hosts of the British veteran army. For w\ant 
of shoes, the marches of his army " had been tracked in 
blood ; " " for want of blankets, many of the men were obliged 
to sit up all night before the camp-fires ; " " more than a 
quarter part of the troops were reported unfit for duty, 
because they were barefoot and otherwise naked : " and he 
hud the greatness to withdraw them from action when they 
were in danger of annihilation, and to endure calmly all the 
obloquy of impetuous discontent, while he carefully pre- 
served the only possibility of future success. 

To add to the cares of Washington, and bring upon the 
national cause the greatest peril, Benedict Arnold, a chiv- 
alrous, daring warrior, turned traitor, and had just escaped, 
with his life and infamy, to join the enemies of his country, 
after havimj made all his arrangements to surrender West 
Point, with its men and munitions of war, to the British. 

* Hildretb, iii. 221. 



280 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

Thus were the hearts of American patriots tried. Thus 
did the folhes of some, who, if honest, were exceedingly sim- 
ple, and the treason of reckless, unprincipled men, unite to 
try the brave spirits upon whose integrity the cause of 
American liberty depended. 

TRIALS FROM DEFEAT. 

The invasion of Canada, commenced under Schuyler, 
Aug. 30, 1775, resulted in the capture of the bold Ethan 
Allen, who was sent to England in irons, and the death of 
the gallant Montgomery in a desperate attack upon Quebec. 
Arnold was borne from the field, severely wounded ; and 
the remains of the spirited army of invasion went into 
winter-quarters behind ramparts of frozen snow. 

Oglethorpe, the senior general in the British army, having 
declined the command in x\merica. Gen. Howe received 
the appointment ; and the forces designed to subdue the 
freemen of the colonies were raised to more than forty 
thousand men. 

Dunmore, in Virginia, by proclamation roused the negro 
slaves and indented apprentices to accept arms, and take 
the field against their masters, promising them liberty as 
their reward. Soon he deemed himself strono; enouii;h for 
aggressive action ; and Norfolk was bombarded, and tlien 
committed to tlie flames. He ascended the rivers, and 
burned and plundered, with the ferocity of a savage, the 
province of which he claimed to be governor. 

In the spring of 1770, our poor army in Canada suffered 
from hunger and the small-pox, of which Thomas, then in 
command, died. Four hundred men surrendered to a party 
of Canadians and Indians. Thirteen thousand men now 
confronted our reduced and suffering patriots. Sullivan 
ordered an attack upon one division of the enemy, which 
was repulsed with the loss of two hundred and thirty men 
killed, wounded, and prisoners. Wayne was wounded, and 



A VIGOROUS NATIONAL LIFE. 281 

Thompson (who commanded the detachment) and Col. Ir- 
ving were among the prisoners. All offensive measures 
in that quarter must now be abandoned, and our brave 
Northern army must seek safety in retreat from Canada, 
"disgraced, defeated, discontented, dispirited, diseased, un- 
disciplined, eaten up with vermin ; no clothes, beds, blankets, 
nor medicines ; and no victuals but salt pork and flour, and 
a scarce supply of that." These words from John Adams 
indicate the severity of suffering through which our patriotic 
soldiers were compelled to pass, and the bitter trials of the 
nation. 

We had gathered a flotilla of sixteen vessels on Lake 
ChamiDlain. These, after a severe engagement, were swept 
from the waters; and Crown Point fell into the enemy's 
hands. 

In August of this year, the whole army of the Republic 
scarcely numbered twenty thousand men. One-fifth of 
these were sick, and another fifth were away on detached 
duties, when Washington was confronted by Gen. Howe 
wdth twenty-four thousand disciplined troops. All attempts 
to prevent their landing on Long Island were unavailing. 
A sharp, spirited battle took place between fifteen thousand 
British and five thousand Americans. Sullivan and Sterling 
were made prisoners ; and New York, the commercial me- 
tropolis of the United States, fell into the hands of the 
enemy, to be held till the war was ended. 

The soldiers now became unsteady under fire, and broke 
in so disgraceful a manner as to extort from Washino-ton 
the indignant demand, " Are these the men with whom I 
am to defend America ? " He was driven from York Island 
altogether. Fort Washington, and the works on Harlem 
Heights, under command of Magraw, were suddenly attacked 
by four columns. Four hundred men of the enemy fell in 
the onset : but our men, demoralized, refused to man the 
works ; and the fort, with two thousand prisoners and a 
great quantity of artillery, fell into the hands of the British. 



282 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

The time of enlistment for many of the continentals 
expired, and multitudes left before their time. Thus Wash- 
ington saw his little army rapidly melting away. Reduced 
to some four thousand men, he conducted a masterly retreat 
southward, and finally recrossed the Delaware. New Jersey 
was lost to the Republic for the present. 

This was a dark day for America. Disaffection spread in 
Pennsylvania. Lee, too self-conceited to be subordinate, 
virtually repudiated Washington's orders, and aspired to a 
separate command. 

A British jfleet, bearing six thousand troops, now appeared 
off Newport ; and that harbor was lost. 

During the winter of 1777, Washington was at Morris- 
town, N. J. He had retired from Princeton too weak to 
strike another blov/. " His troops were exhausted : many 
had no blankets ; others were barefoot ; all were very 
thinly clad." * He joined a few skeletons of regiments 
which had been detached from the army of the North, and 
a few volunteers ; and thus our brave men, hardly fit to be 
called an army, shivering with cold and suffering from hun- 
srer, waited the orders of their o^reat commander. Ao-ain 
the country was scoured for men. Those who had been 
left for the comfort of needy families, and many who had, 
for reasons of cowardice or from sinister motives, evaded 
their country's call, were now brought into camp ; and the 
army was re-organized. 

The tone of England, in the mean time, may be judged 
by a single fact. American commissioners proposed that 
captured British seamen brought into French ports should 
be exchanged for so many American prisoners of war. Lord 
Stormont replied, "The king's ambassador receives no appli- 
cation from rebels, unless they come to implore his Majesty's 
pardon." The note which contained these haughty words 
was promptly returned for his lordship's " better consider- 
ation." 

* Hildreth, iii. 170. 



A VIGOROUS NATIONAL LIFE. 283 

The summer campaign gave no decisive advantage to the 
Americans anywhere. We lost our important defences in 
the Highlands on the Hudson, and in September fought the 
disastrous battle of the Brandywine ; and Philadelphia fell 
into the hands of the enemy. 

Our forces in the South were quite inadequate to defend so 
large a territory against a foe so formidable ; and the Caro- 
linas were treated by the British as conquered territory. 

The Indians were officered, and trained to deeds of 
cruelty for which the vilest enemies in civilized warfare 
could not fail to blush in shame. Let the reader trace these 
savages, with their Tory allies under Butler and Brant, 
through the massacre of Wyoming, in the vivid pages of 
" W^'oming, its History, Stirring Incidents, and Romantic Ad- 
ventures," by George Peck, D.D., and he will have some 
idea of the horrors through which America passed to the 
triumphs of the Revolution. 

We may now pause to wonder how the struggling forces 
of Freedom were sustained through these years of agony. 
Why did they not abandon the effort ? They were a mar- 
vel to their enemies, to themselves, and to the civilized world. 
Again and again the English thought they were conquered ; 
that they had exhausted their last resources of men and 
money ; and that, from very anguish of soul, they must sub- 
mit to their enemies. But no. A Being above all human 
events would not permit them to yield. A courage that 
knew no danger, a fortitude that defied all suffering, was 
given them from above, rendering them actually invincible. 

If they had passed on in uninterrupted triumph to easy 
success, if they had never felt the horrors of poverty, the 
bitterness of treachery and defeat, they would have known 
nothing of the value of freedom, and have entered upon the 
struggles of re-organization, with no adequate patience, or 
wisdom or patriotism, to sustain a form of government so 
new and so exceedingly critical. But God had sifted and 
tried them that they might be equal to their task. 



284 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

TRL\LS FROM A SPIRIT OF COMPROMISE. 

To a superficial eye, it might liave seemed a hopeful fact 
that the American colonists had strong advocates in the 
British Parliament; that noble friends of liberty opposed 
with matchless argument and faithful warnings every meas- 
ure of oppression which the king and his ministers imposed 
upon the colonies: but it is precisely here that we discover 
the origin of our greatest peril. If Pownal and Fox and 
Burke could have succeeded in tearing the mask from the 
eyes of George the Third, and unveiling the depth of disgrace 
into which he was plunging the nation; could they have 
made ministers believe, what they so confidently affirmed, 
that they could not conquer America, and that the war 
would rob England of the brightest jewel in her crown, — the 
odious Stamp Act would have been promptly repealed, taxa- 
tion without representation would have been abandoned, and 
then, so far as we can see, all idea of independence would 
have perished in America. It was from her friends that the 
greatest danger to Liberty arose. Their sense of justice 
was truly exalted ; their plea for humanity worthy of their 
noble rank. They were honored in the right; but the men 
they addressed were judicially blinded. Their hearts were 
hardened, like the heart of Pharaoh ; for God evidently in- 
tended to lead out his people " with a high hand and an 
outstretched arm." 

Kindred dangers arose on every hand. Petition after pe- 
tition went from the American colonists to the crown. Had 
any one of these been heeded, and the heavy yoke upon their 
necks been lightened, the rising nationality of freedom 
would have been crushed in its be2;inninu:s. It reminds us 
of the oppressive decisions of Rehoboam. Strange infatua- 
tions, now as then, had seized the monarch ; for " the cause 
was from the Lord." 

When, in 1774, Galloway proposed to Congress his meas- 
ures of compromise, they were rejected by a majority of 



A VIGOROUS NATIONAL LIFE. 2S3 

only a single vote. Who controlled that single vote ? We 
tremble to thhik of so narrow an escape. 

When temporizers, led on by Dickinson, a man of splen- 
did abilities, and the most captivating style of manners and 
rhetoric, had it in their power, again and again, to postpone 
the declaration of independence, and to secure a last humil- 
iating petition to the throne, how marked the Providence 
that denied even the royalist Penn an audience with the 
king, or access to official power, to present it, and which 
made it the occasion of a most despotic and cruel proclama- 
tion, denouncing the colonists and their congress as rebels, 
and, in effect, menacing their immediate subjugation or utter 
extermination ! 

What strength of self-interest in the various proprietary 
governments ! what plausibility in the peace doctrines of 
the Quakers, and in pleas for loyalty from legislators and 
capitalists, from merchants and lawyers, who saw nothing 
but ruin in resistance to the power of England ! Especially 
what power did the leaders of compromise acquire, when it 
arose from the boldest and firmest remonstrants against ty- 
ranny, and promised to accept nothing but justice, which the 
British Government, it was with reason affirmed, would ulti- 
mately yield ! 

The apathy of Congress amid the general distress of 1779 
added to the public peril. Many of its strongest men left 
it for various reasons, wholly incompatible with the high 
trust committed to them by the people. The number in 
attendance was frequently reduced below thirty, and even 
below twenty-five. 

Finally, when the triumphant leaders of the British army 
came with the sword in one hand and the olive-branch in 
the other, offiiring " peace and liberty and wealth " in the 
place of bloody war and insupportable suffering, sus- 
tained by the whole influence of the Church of England at 
home and in America, how improbable it was that the offers 
of pardon would be rejected ! But God gave to the Ameri- 



286 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

can nation a high-soiiled honor, a sacred regard for prin- 
ciple, an unconquerable bravery, which exalted them above 
the blandishments of hypocrisy as well as the terrors of 
war. He nerved the souls of Jefferson and Henry, of Adams 
and Jay, and, above all, of the immortal Washington, with a 
patriotism so incorruptible, that they led the nation through 
the perils of smiles and of tears, of bribery and of blood, 
with a firmness and devotion which made them a sublime 
spectacle to enemies and friends. 

By such discipline did God separate the precious from the 
vile, drive away or destroy the cowardly timidity and craven 
selfishness unfit for use in constructing the Temple of Lib- 
erty, and nerve with highest energy the master-spirits chosen 
to lead the hosts of Freedom in the ages to come. 

Thus have we found and brouo;ht forward the facts which 
clearly justify the proposition which stands at the head of 
this chapter, — discipline insures a vigorous national life. 



CHAPTER VII. 

HISTORY RECORDS AN ACKNOWLEDGED NATION AT< LIFK. 

"0 Peace, thou welcome guest, all hail! Thou heavenly visitant, calm the tumults 
of nations, and wave thy balmy wing over this region of liberty ! . . . May this groat 
event excite and elevate our first, our highest acknowledgments to the Sovereign Mon- 
arch of universal nature, to the Supreme Disposer and Controller of all events ! Let 
this our pious, sincere, and devout gratitude ascend in one general effusion of heartfelt 
praise and hallelujah, in one united cloud of incense, even the incense of universal joy 
and thanksgiving to God, from the collective body of the United States." — President 
Stiles. 

The neighborhood of nations requires mutual concessions. 
It is not merely the question of each, whether it has a right 
to exist, or whether its institutions are sound and benign in 
their influence upon the people. As individuals are under 
obligations to be good and acceptable neighbors, so each 
nation is bound to be a peaceable and useful member of the 
family of nations. Every other member of the great fam- 
ily has a right to exact it. The happiness and prosperity 
of the whole depend upon it. 

When, therefore, colonies, however remote from the 
home government, assert their independence, they are 
greatly concerned in the question of acknowledgment. Are 
they right ? Do the principles of their uprising commend 
themselves to sound reason, to the approval of leading 
minds, to the men in power in other nations ? Have they 
vindicated their nationality ? Are they a nation with the 
indispensable resources, rights, and powers of separate in- 
dependent government ? 

Until these questions are answered, there is still cause for 
anxiety with regard to the new experiment. There was 
cause for anxiety in America. 

287 



288 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 



THE ENGLISH ACKNOWLEDGE AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. 

Before the commencement of actual hostilities, the popu- 
lar feeling was strongly with the government. The Ameri- 
cans were rebels, and his Majesty must subdue them at all 
hazards. Writers and speakers vied with each other in 
opposing all ideas of future separation. There was, how- 
ever, one exception. Dean Tucker, in a published pam- 
phlet, urged upon Parliament a peaceful release of the 
colonies from all obligations of loyalty to the British 
crown. It is true, he placed it upon grounds of forfeiture ; 
but the principle of American independence was conceded 
even by his proposition, that the way should be open for 
the return of any colony repenting its attempt to live with- 
out the mother-country. 

Burke would not tolerate the noble proposition of Tucker, 
though he was a warm friend of the colonies. His desire 
for reconciliation, however, carried with it a confession of 
American rights, which had been denied, and formed the 
nucleus of an opposition, which finally gathered around it a 
strong public sentiment in favor of American independence. 
In a recent election, the ministry had obtained an over- 
whelming majority in favor of coercion. Lord North could 
go on with his measures for the suppression of rebellion, 
but not heartily ; for even he was, in principle and feeling, 
really opposed to the war. Officially, he favored the king ; 
but, personally, the colonies. This fact was of great moral 
importance to America. 

The minority had strength among the merchants, who 
were not long in discovering that free colonies fostered by 
the British Government, or even an independent nation 
with the best resources of a continent at command, would 
furnish a more lucrative trade than a subdued, oppressed, 
and discouraged people. The principles of civil liberty, 
now apparenth'^ endangered in the Avhole kingdom, were 
roused to a new and vigorous life hy the American strug- 



AN ACKNOWLEDGED NATIONAL LIFE. 289 

gle ; and the English dissenters were firm and really formi- 
dable in their opposition to the tyrannical measures of the 
king and his ministers. Some portions of the old Whig 
party, led by the Marquis of Rockingham, the Earl of 
Chatham, Pownal and Johnstone, and urged forward by the 
eloquence of Burke, Barre, Dunning, and Fox, revealed 
the nucleus of a power which gave voice and effect to the 
English sense of justice, and would finally bring up the 
convictions and moral force of the British nation to the ac- 
knowledgment of American independence. 

Jamaica petitioned Parliament most earnestly against 
the " plan, almost carried into execution, for reducing the 
colonies into the most abject state of slavery." At that 
time, however, remonstrance was in vain. Resolutions 
against the oppressive measures of the ministry, offered by 
Burke and Hartley, and sustained by the most powerful elo- 
quence, were promptly voted down ; but they were a voice 
for justice which the civilized world must hear. Wilkes, 
Lord Mayor of London, led the power of that great city in 
official and public expression of " abhorrence " of all meas- 
ures for " the oppression of their fellow-subjects in the 
colonies." 

Good men were on opposite sides in this struggle. The 
great John Wesley, whose loyalty was a part of his religion, 
wrote and published his earnest advice to the colonies to 
submit to the crown ; while Oglethorpe had earlier the 
broad views which Wesley subsequently reached, and, as 
we have seen, refused to act as commander-in-chief of the 
British army of forty thousand men ordered to subjugate 
the colonies, for which he felt an interest truly paternal. 
At the opening of Parliament, Oct. 6, 1775, Gen. Conway 
and the Duke of Grafton abandoned their official positions 
rather than be longer identified with this unrighteous tyran- 
ny, and joined the opposition. 

The Declaration of Independence discouraged many of 
the English advocates of conciliation, and gave strength to 

37 



290 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

the idea that rebellion must first be crushed before over- 
tures of peace could be made. But the victorious march 
of the Howes through Long Island, New York, and New 
Jersey, encouraged even Lord North to bring forward new 
measures of conciliation. lie declared his real sentiments, 
which had been from the first opposed to forced taxation ; 
and his humane feelings, really revolting from the murder- 
ous acts which he had felt obliged to promote, gave power- 
ful influence to the public sentiment, wdiicli brought the 
people of Great Britain to the acknowledgment of American 
independence. 

France, roused by the sympathies of her people, came 
forward to help the struggling colonies at the expense of a 
perilous war with England ; and this gave great additional 
strength to the opposition, and led to a new commission 
for conciliation. By the spring of 1778, the demand for 
peace had become importunate in England ; and as the hon- 
orable commissioners under Lord North's Conciliatory Act 
— the Earl of Carlisle, William Edwin, afterward Lord Auk- 
land, and Gov. Johnstone — could gain no audience with 
Congress (still officially regarded and treated as a rebel 
assembly), it was coming to be thoroughly understood 
that there could be no peace but by the acknowledgment 
of the independence of the United States. This, so far 
from operating against the public desire for peace, deepened 
and extended it. When a noble earl said in his place, 
" My lords, you cannot conquer America," he gave expres- 
sion to the profoundest convictions of the British people ; 
and this was the predetermined acknowledgment of our 
independence. 

Spain now came forward as a party to the war, aiming 
chiefly at the recovery of her territorial rights in America, 
but incidentally contributing to the general dissatisfaction 
in England with the war against America. 

The capture of Burgoyne and his army, the consummate 
skill of Washington in the recovery of New Jersey, and the 



AN ACKNOWLEDGED NATIONAL LIFE. 291 

indomitable persistence of the armies with their allies result- 
ing in the surrender of Cornwallis, brought this feeling to a 
crisis ; and no ministry could stand before it. The kino-'s 
speech in November, 1781, breathed nothing but slaughter; 
but on the first division, the House of Commons showed that 
the war party was losing its power. The motion, that " any 
further attempt to reduce the Americans by force would be 
ineffectual and injurious," was lost by a majority of only 
forty-one. A little more than a month later, a motion for 
"an address to the king to put a stop to the war" was lost 
by only a single vote. Five days later, " a similar motion was 
carried," and the British people had acknowledged the inde- 
pendence of America. 



EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS ACKNOWLEDGE THE NEW NATION. 

The sword had been wielded with sufficient effect to usher 
in the period of diplomacy. In 1780, brave John Adams 
appears in Paris with power from the American Congress to 
form treaties of peace and commerce. He was, however, too 
impetuous for the cautious Vergennes, and was soon trans- 
ferred to Holland. Finding the way gradually opened, and 
obstructions thrown in his way overcome, he matured and ef- 
fected a treaty with the States-General at the Hague ; and 
the heroic government of Holland was the first in the world 
to acknowledge the independence of the United States of 
America ; a distinction of which she may well be proud, and 
for which the Great Republic will never cease to be pro- 
foundly grateful. 

In the mean time, our struggling country encountered a 
new peril from the offer of the Empress of Russia to mediate 
between the contending parties. The desire of England for 
peace may be seen in the proposition, that the German em- 
peror should be associated with the empress in this media- 
tion. Such had been the discouragements of Southern 
members from the success of the British army at the battle 



292 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

of Camden, and the conquest of South Carolina and Geor- 
gia, that Congress was induced to waive the demand for a 
formal acknowledgment of independence, insisting only 
upon virtual independence ; but, by tlie blessings of Provi- 
dence, complications arose, which destroyed all the combina- 
tions formed under the auspices of the Empress of Russia, 
and once more our rising nation escaped a ruinous tempta- 
tion. The honest, firm, and fearless spirit of Franklin, who 
was our representative at Paris, was doubtless the most for- 
midable obstacle in the way of a treaty urged by the South 
against the determined resistance of New England, which 
would have sacrificed the national life for which the American 
people had shed their blood like water. When the Marquis 
of Rockingham, who openly advocated the independence of 
these colonies, had succeeded Lord North, Adams and Frank- 
lin were approached with some official overtures of peace, 
with every advantage excepting formal independence. Sir 
Guy Carlton and Admiral Digby were empowered to approach 
Washington and the Congress with the same propositions ; 
and Oswald, a British merchant, was sent to Paris to ascer- 
tain of Franklin the American ultimatum, and returned with 
the information that " independence, a satisfactory boundary, 
and a participation in the fisheries, would be indispensable 
requisites in a treaty." * 

Rockingham, the friend of America, died, and Shelburn, 
from the school of Chatham, succeeded him. His private 
opinions, however, were of no avail. The British people 
demanded peace, and neither ministry nor king could silence 
their demand. 

Just at this time, the news reached Europe that the British 
Admiral Rodney had almost literally destroyed the French 
fleet under Count de Grasse in the West Indies. This had, 
of course, a strong tendency to strength the diplomacy of 
England, while it increased the desire of France to reach the 
end of the war. But America was firm. At length, an act 

* Hildrcth, iii. 416. 



AlSr ACKNOWLEDGED NATIONAL LIFE. 293 

of Parliament authorized negotiations on the basis of Frank- 
lin's previous announcement. Oswald met Franklin and Jay 
in Paris with full powers to conclude a peace with certain 
" colonies " in America. Jay, however, firmly refused to 
treat in behalf of British " colonies ; " and Oswald soon pro- 
cured amended prerogatives to make peace with " the 
United States of America." 

Not exactly in accordance with instructions, but prompted 
by what seemed to be sufficient reasons, Franklin and Jay 
negotiated a separate peace with Oswald in behalf of Eng- 
land ; not, however, to take effect until approved by France. 
Vergennes was too noble to take offence at so critical a mo- 
ment, and resumed negotiations, to which Spain also was a 
party. 

At length, on the 19th of April, 1783, — just eight years 
from the opening of this fearful war, — the proclamation 
of peace issued by Congress reached the army at New- 
burg. The Revolutionary War was ended, and the inde- 
pendence of America was acknowledged by Holland, Eng- 
land, France, and Spain. What exultant joy rang through 
the camp of those scarred veterans ! What ecstasies of de- 
light thrilled the American people. 

The great task of constructing and consolidating a free 
government was not yet completed. Formidable difficulties 
threatened the new nation on every side ; but the same calm 
endurance, lofty patriotism, and trust in God, which had 
borne us through the struggles of war, would sustain us 
through the conflicts of opinion which must inevitably fol- 
low. Men rose to sight, and disappeared ; armies combined, 
and melted away ; local selfishness warred with the general 
good : but the nation lived. 

WOULD THE AjVIERICAN PEOPLE ACKNOWLEDGE THE INDEPENDENCE OF 
THE NATIONAL LIFE? 

This would seem a strange question ; and yet history re- 
veals the astonishing fact, that the acknowledgment to come 



294 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

from tlie American people themselves would be the hardest 
to obtain, and the longest withheld, of any upon which true 
national freedom and dignity were made to depend. 

The doctrine of " State rights " arose in the earliest at- 
tempts at national organization. It was indeed a very grave 
problem, how the separate States could retain sufficient 
power for efficient internal government, and at the same 
time concede the pi'crogatives required to constitute a 
nation. The question was too profound and far-reaching 
to be easily or suddenly solved. The greatest minds stag- 
gered under the pressure of its difficulties, and most extreme 
and opposite views were advanced by men of high merit as 
statesmen. 

The time had come when some of these difficult questions 
must be settled. To the General Government belonged the 
right of eminent domain. The public lands were rightfully 
the property of the whole people, not of the States sever- 
ally ; and the people, individually, were represented, not by 
the legislatures of the several States, but by the Congress 
of the nation. It was indispensable, therefore, that ques- 
tions of State boundaries should be settled with the least 
possible delay ; that Congress should begin to see its 
sources of revenue in the unsettled lands, and the field for 
enlargement in the forming of new States, released from 
State claims. If the concessions required were refused, 
then perilous confiict between the General and State Gov- 
ernments would soon follow. New York set the example 
of cedini!; lands to the General Government which she 
claimed in the West. Virginia had ceded vast territories, 
but claimed the whole of Kentucky ; and all that was done 
in this direction indicated the crude, unsettled state of affixirs 
at the close of the war, and the reluctance with which the 
States parted with any asserted rights in favor of the nation. 

To discharge the debts of the United States, especially to 
meet the demands of the army, five per cent impost duty 
was proposed to the States, All, excepting Georgia and 



AN ACKNOWLEDGED NATIONAL LIFE. 295 

Rhode Island, had formally or virtually consented. Just 
as Morris, struggling with the grave financial difficulties 
of the nation, began to hope for relief from this source, 
Rhode Island utterl}'' refused her consent; Virginia imme- 
diately repealed her act acquiescing in the measure ; and 
Georgia, having only just returned to the Union, could do 
nothing in the premises. Where, then, was the treasury 
of the nation to find money to meet the eight millions due 
for the service of the pending year, and pay the army and 
other current expenses of the government? Loans slowly 
gathered from Holland; and $1,111,111 magnanimously 
furnished by France, notwithstanding the slight in the 
matter of the treaty, rendered a little aid, but could hardly 
be felt in so desperate a financial struggle. 

In the mean time, the discontent of the army became 
alarming. Notices appeared about the camp at Newburg 
of a meeting of officers to consider the condition of affairs ; 
and an inflammable address, written by Capt. Arm- 
strong, an aide-de-camp of Gates, was circulated among 
the men, showing a dangerous conspiracy to coerce Con- 
gress, or take the redress of grievances into their own 
hands. Fortunately, Washington was too wise and great 
to fall into such a snare. He boldly superseded this un- 
lawful assemblage by one appointed by himself, in which 
he so energetically denounced the incipient treason, that 
no one dared to assume the responsibility of the measure. 
But would the army acknowledge the nation in its poverty, 
and utter inability to pay their honest dues, and secure 
them from suffering ? The highest faith in their patriotic 
devotion hardly dared to affirm it. 

There was again uneasiness at Newburg. Some three 
hundred soldiers from Pennsylvania wrote insolently to 
Congress, demanding pay. Part of a corps started from 
Lancaster to Philadelphia, and they were joined by troops 
from the barracks under seven sergeants; and for three 
hours these insurgent soldiers beleaguered Congress and the 



296 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

Council of Pennsylvania, demanding their pay and a re- 
dress of grievances. There was too much sympathy with 
them among the creditors of Congress and the miUtia to 
relieve Congress from this disgrace. Only Washington was 
great enough for this trying crisis. As soon as the intel- 
ligence reached him, he ordered fifteen hundred men to 
Philadelphia, who dispersed the insurgents. Congress 
adjourned to Princeton. 

Massachusetts was not free from the spirit of insubordina- 
tion. Maine began to move for an independent State or- 
ganization ; and, still more, taxes were enormously high. 
The courts attempting to enforce their payment were some- 
times assailed by mobs. Discontent spread among the 
people, until acts of violence threatened the overthrow of 
the government. Shay's Rebellion had to be put down by 
loyal troops under command of Gen. Lincoln, and the 
loss of several lives was the result ; and yet the American 
army did finally acknowledge American independence, and 
were disbanded amid the strongest demonstrations of grati- 
tude and mutual afiection. 

But the acknowledgment of one man transcends all 
others. Washino:ton had reached the 2:reatest heiujlit of 
popular influence and power. He had, with unaffected 
modesty and self-distrust, accepted the position of gravest 
responsibility and greatest personal danger in this war of 
revolution. No one knew better than himself what must 
follow to him if the colonies failed in their struggle, first for 
right, and then for independence. No one knew better than 
he the desperate nature of this undertaking. Humanly 
speaking, the probabilities were all against success. But 
the people had seen him move calmly into the field of 
danger. They had seen him attracting to the standard of 
Liberty the old and the young, and seen the confused masses 
reduced to order and efficiency by the firmness of his com- 
mand and the strength of his military wisdom. They had 
seen him stand up in the face of the enemy with colossal 



AN ACKNOWLEDGED NATIONAL LIFE. 297 

majesty when his feeble army was reduced by expiration 
of time, by desertions, and by slaughter on the field of 
battle. They had seen him great enough to retreat in the 
teeth of ref)roaches from his own countrymen when an 
engagement would imperil the army and the sacred cause 
for which they were ready to battle and to die. They had 
seen him share with his soldiers the suffering's of huno;er, 
of long and weary marches, of cold, and of sleeping upon the 
ground. They had seen his struggles for the army when 
the poverty of his country denied them necessary clothing 
and tents to protect them from the cold, and the scanty 
pittance they had so severely earned for their suffering fami- 
lies at home. They had seen him rise above all sectional- 
ism and personal jealousy and treasonable conspiracies 
when he had failed to accomplish impossibilities. They 
had seen him in the might of his firm will punishing cow- 
ardice and disloyalty, until they did not dare to whisper their 
complaints or treason, lest he should somehow hear them ; 
and yet winning the hearts alike of the roughest and hardiest 
and the noblest and most polished of men. They had seen 
that his courage was no passion ; that his fortitude was no 
temporary resolution to suffer when he could not avoid it ; 
that he was just as calm and firm after a defeat as after a vic- 
tory ; just as thorough and great in his appeals when Con- 
gress was paralyzed, or the nation apparently sinking from 
exhaustion, as he was grateful for the noble endeavors to 
achieve apparent impossibilities. They had seen him mov- 
ing in strength to and fro amid the perils of the camp for 
eight years, and all this time firmly refusing all pay, receiv- 
ing not one penny for his valuable services, and handing 
over literally every thing that his indefatigable industry and 
great talents and the noble sacrifice and zeal of his country 
could o;ather to the comfort and relief of the men under his 
command. Finally, they had seen him on his knees in 
prayer to God. 

He had triumphed sublimely over the armed foes of his 

38 



298 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

country, — over poverty, jealousy, and ignorance, over perils 
the most imminent and fearful, — and gathered around hira 
the most sacred affections and gratitude of a nation. What 
would he expect in return ? A kingdom. Surely nothing 
less, the world, in the light of history, would answer. Indeed 
he was a king, — a sovereign of hearts, and, we may almost 
say, of American destinj'. 

But the test came. Republican ideas had been very 
popular in oratory, and very inspiring in promise ; but the 
soldiers were starving in despite of them. They seemed to 
be wanting in power. They could not create bread nor 
money, for bills of credit were neither ; and the distress of 
the hour would combine with the lingrerino; love of mon- 
archy which the people had inherited, and the treason 
of selfish ambition, to offer Washina;ton a crown. Col. 
LcAvis Nicola, then of Pennsylvania, but a foreigner by 
birth, would be made the bearer of this tempting offer. 
Now look at the man. See the storm of w^rath gathering 
in his great soul and lowering upon his brow. Hear the 
words of indignant, scathing rebuke which fall from his lips. 
See the fawning sycophants trembling, and fleeing from his 
presence as from the face of terrific inexorable justice. 
Washington a king? — a traitor to the country he had so 
lonor stru2:o:led to free? — to the liberties for which the 
people had bled for eight years ? No ! What did all this 
long agony of the American colonists mean? Simply a 
change of masters ? — a military despotism ? No ! it meant 
" liberty or death ; " and the whole moral significance of 
the American spirit, and the battles of mind and blood for a 
hundred and fifty years, were represented and impersonated 
in Washington. lie could only think the thoughts and feel 
the yearnings of America. He was free, and America was 
free. 

We may now see the British army retire from New York, 
from Long Island, from " the United States of America." 
Washington takes leave of his companions in arms, bathed 



AN ACKN"0\YLEDGED NATIONAL LIFE 299 

in tears. He is hailed in Philadelphia, and everywhere, as the 
deliverer of his country. Loud hurrahs ring at his approach. 
The eyes of gratitude gaze at his stately form, dimmed with 
tears. Flowers are strewed in his path by fair hands. 
Smiling affection wreaths his brow with the garland of 
laurel and roses. But he hastens on. He is at Annapolis, 
before Congress, delivering his farewell address ; and these 
are its closing words : " Having now finished the work 
assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of action ; and 
bidding an affectionate farewell to this august body, under 
whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commis- 
sion, and take my leave of all the employments of public 
life." The grandest act recorded in history. Moral sub- 
limity could rise no higher. 

Mifflin was in the chair. Providence had arranged that 
one who had been with good reason suspected of plotting 
for the removal of Washington, when gloom enveloped the 
camp and the nation, should attempt to give voice to the 
feelings of that great hour. Mifflin thus responded : "The 
United States, in Congress assembled, receive, with emotions 
too affecting for utterance, the solemn resignation of the 
authority under which you have led their troops with suc- 
cess through a perilous and doubtful war. Called upon by 
your country to defend its invaded rights, you accepted the 
sacred charge before it had found alliances, and while it ^yas 
without friends or a government to support you. You have 
conducted the great military contest with wisdom and forti- 
tude, invariably regarding the rights of the civil power, 
through all disasters and changes. You have, by the love 
and confidence of your fellow-citizens, enabled them to dis- 
play their martial genius, and transmit their fame to pos- 
terity. You have persevered, till these United States, aided 
by a magnanimous king and nation, have been enabled, 
under a just Providence, to close the war in freedom, safety, 
and independence ; on which happy event we sincerely join 
you in congratulations. Having defended the standard of 



300 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

liberty in this New World, having taught a lesson useful to 
those who inflict and to those who feel oppression, you 
retire from the great theatre of action with the blessings of 
your fellow-citizens : but the glory of your virtues will not 
terminate with your military command ; it will continue to 
animate remotest ao-es." 

AVashington had acknowledged the independence of the 
national life ; the American people had acknowledged it, 
but with one errand and damag-ing; reservation. Virw-inia, 
and the Southern States generally, insisted upon setting the 
State above the Nation ; that the first devotion of loyalty 
was to the State ; that nothing belonged to the General 
Government but what had been formally conceded to it ; and 
that the Union was a simple confederacy, from which either 
of its members, sovereign in itself, might withdraw at pleas- 
ure. Strange, therefore, as the fact may appear, while sove- 
reiorns and courts abroad acknowledo-ed the new nation as a 
free and independent nation, many of the States, as such, 
denied it ; and history must wait ninety years before it 
could record this latest acknowledgment of the independent 
national life in the United States of America. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE CONSTITUTION REVEALS AN ORGANIC NATIONAL LIFE. 

" Every nation, when able and agreed, has a right to set up over themselves any form 
of government which to them may appear most conducive to their common welfare." — 
Langdon. 

Constitutions grow. They are not the sudden product of 
genius or talent. They cannot be resolved into perfect 
maturity by any body of men. Their materials, like inor- 
ganic matter in chaos, seem to be floating about amid the 
confusion of ages, seeking affinities and organization. A 
careful study of history, however, will reveal the vital 
element of Christian liberty, surviving all changes, and 
superior to all antagonist forces, slowly attracting to itself 
the materials of its growth, and in all its local manifesta- 
tions holding secret but indissoluble connections with all the 
true principles of liberty on the globe. 

Magna Charta, so fundamental to the British Constitution, 
was not the creation of the powerful nobles in conflict with 
King John. It was the grand original right of man, which 
had been felt and asserted somewhere in all the ages, but 
which had been long denied, insulted, and stamped out 
of sight. It must, then, assert itself, claim a human voice to 
utter its demands and enforce its authority, that the race 
might not believe it dead, or forever powerless against 
oppression. And, when it was once expressed, it was not for 
England alone, but for the world. It slowly, but with steady 
progress, leavened the masses, so that British freedom from 
henceforth embodied a thought, a grand fact, which could 
never be safely ignored. The conflicts of Puritanism with 



302 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

despotic power showed the pressure and strength of this 
life-force on its way to the New World. 

Now freedom begins to show dimly its constitutional form 
in the colonies, — first in its indiijnant utterances aij-ainst the 
tyrannical acts of the mother-country ; then in the strong 
State-papers, which showed inchoate State authority ante- 
dating the formal organization of independent government ; 
then in the bonds of union, which indicated a common 
interest and common life in the separate colonies ; then in 
the organized State governments which rose up amid the 
birth-throes of the great Revolution. 

A project of union was brought before Congress, by 
Franklin, in 1775; but it could only show the conviction of 
its necessities, and the difficulty of ascertaining of what 
the unity of the colonies consisted. 

THE OLD ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 

When the declaration of independence destroyed the 
unity which the colonies had formerly recognized in the 
British crown, and left them to ascertain and define the pro- 
founder and less evident ties, which, as parts of a new nation, 
bound them together, they sought to define in words the 
sense in which they were separate States, and at the same 
time a General Government. A most difficult thing to do. 
The history of the effort affords a striking illustration of 
the fact, already stated, that reliable constitutions are not 
made, but grow. In June, 1776, a committee of one from 
each State was appointed to draught a project of national 
government, then simply understood as a confederacy of colo- 
nies. Samuel Adams, Sherman, Dickinson, and John Rut- 
ledge, were of the number of this important committee ; a 
sufficient guaranty that the effort would be able, and faith- 
ful to the people, so far as the progress of events had de- 
fined the possibilities of national organization. Dickinson 
drew the document in twenty articles. But the report 



AN OEGANIC NATIONAL LIFE. 303 

proved at once the difficulties of the task, and the inevi- 
table demand for mutual concessions. Repeated attempts 
were made to consider and adopt it ; but the difficulty of 
agreement, and the disturbed condition of Congress, driven 
from Philadelphia, deferred the final vote for six months. 
The Articles of Confederation were at length sanctioned by 
Congress, and went to the States for their " mimediate and 
dispassionate action." In the document accompanying the 
Articles, it was well said, " that to form a permanent Union, 
accommodated to the opinions and wishes of the delegates of 
so many States, differing in habits, produce, commerce, and 
internal police, was found to be a work which nothing but 
time and reflection, conspiring with a disposition to concili- 
ate, could mature and accomplish." 

During the following winter, only New Hampshire, New 
York, North Carolina, and Virginia accepted the Articles 
" without objections." After proposing " various amend- 
ments," however, all the States, excepting New Jersey, Del- 
aware, and Maryland, adopted them. These States had no 
difficulty in pointing out valid objections to the plan ; for it 
was really very imperfect : but New Jersey and Delaware 
yielded to the urgent entreaties of Congress. Maryland 
stood alone for two years in resisting the ratification, which 
prevented the official promulgation of the Articles. 

To reach even a confederation, the following: ^rrave and 
perplexing questions must be settled : — 

How should the votes in Congress be given? Virginia 
was large, populous, and central ; and she said, " According to 
population : " but she was overruled, and the vote was to be 
by States ; and not less than nine States were required to 
determine any question of grave importance. 

How should taxes be levied ? The East said, " According 
to population ; " but the South said, " No : slave labor is not 
so profitable as white." 

The casting vote which settled this controversy fell upon 
New Jersey ; and she gave it to the South, against the North, 
exempting forever slave property from taxation." 



304 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

In the result, real estate alone became the basis of taxa- 
tion ; but, as the General Government had no power to fix 
the valuation, this measure was fatal to the confederacy. 

To whom should the Western lands belong ? This Avas, as 
we have already seen, a very difficult question. A prompt 
and unrestricted concession of the right of eminent domain 
to the nation would have been just and wise, and this was 
urged by the States holding no claims in the Great West ; 
but the claiming States made an obstinate resistance. The 
severe contest was ended, for the time being, by such partial 
concessions to Congress as led to acquiescence, if not 
approval ; and the government began to exercise a territorial 
sovereignty, which would ultimately be a source of vast 
revenue, but which, for a long period, was more troublesome 
than profitable. This controversy being settled, on the first 
day of March, 1781, Maryland yielded, signed the Articles 
of Confederation, and they became the law of the land. 

Navigation was made dependent exclusively upon the will 
of each State, and the control of imports as w^ell ; thus bar- 
ring the right of the United States to prohibit the slave- 
trade. 

The States, in the mean time, refused to commit the settle- 
ment of future land-claims and boundaries, north-west of 
the Ohio, to the United States ; thus providing for an almost 
interminable contest of jurisdiction in the future. 

The most obstinate prejudices against a standing army 
had frequently paralyzed the efibrts of Washington and Con- 
gress to raise continental forces to give greater reliableness 
and efficiency to American arms ; and now the States would 
peremptorily deny to the General Government military 
control over their separate jurisdictions. There should not 
be one grand national army, but thirteen armies. How 
utterly destructive of government this must have been, had 
there not been vital power in the underlying unity, which, 
when emergency demanded, would rise up, and reveal its 
strength, despite the vicious assumptions of "State rights"! 



AlSr ORGAKtC NATIONAL LIFE. 305 

The United States might declare war, and make peace, 
and make treaties ; but " the power reserved to the States 
over imports and exports, over shipping and revenue," 
really destroyed the force of these concessions. 

The States must share in " the right of coining money, 
the right of keeping up ships of war, land-forces, forts, gar- 
risons," and must make their own laws of treason. 

Finally, it must require the unanimous vote of the thir- 
teen States to adopt or amend the Articles of Confederation. 

Well might it be said, " A government which had not 
power to levy a tax, or raise a soldier, or deal directly with 
an individual, or keep its engagements with foreign powers, 
or amend its constitution without the unanimous consent of 
its members, had not enough of vital force to live." * 

If now it is asked, Was there no indication in the old con- 
federation of an organic national life, I answer, with great 
satisfaction, that the assumption by Congress, that the most 
extended territory, however diverse in local interests and 
prejudices, might be included in one Great Republic, was a 
fundamental position, distinguishing this modern from the 
ancient republics of Greece and Rome, and conforming 
bravely to the future plans and developments of Providence. 
The right of citizenship and the franchise had been settled 
variously in the States according to caprice or prejudice. 
" One State disfranchised Jews, another Catholics, another 
deniers of the Trinity, and another men of a complexion 
different from white;" but " the Articles of Confederation and 
Perpetual Union made no distinction of class, and knew no 
caste but the caste of humanitj^" f That which gave 
reality to the Union was the article which secured to " the 
free inhabitants " of each of the States " all privileges and 
immunities of free citizens in the several States." South 
Carolina and Georgia, moved by their prejudice against 
color, resisted this broad national assumption, but without 
success. The General Government had absurdly admitted 

* Bancroft, ix. 446. t Ibid., 447. 

39 



306 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

the word " free," thereby discrimhiating against slaves ; but 
they could by no means be induced to make color alone the 
basis of proscription. " Congress, while it left the regula- 
tion of the elective franchise to the judgment of each State, 
in the Articles of Confederation, in its votes, and its treaties 
with other powers, reckoned all the free inhabitants, with- 
out distinction of ancestry, creed, or color, as subjects or 
citizen.s," thus conformino; to the civilization of the a":e. It 
must be considered strange that this grand principle should 
again be in contest, and require the conflicts of near a cen- 
tury, extending down to this very day, for its complete vin- 
dication. 

Finally, as in all these respects the American Republic 
presented thus early a complete contrast with the republics 
of Greece and Rome, so also did it rise immeasurably above 
them in its consideration for the individual man. In the 
ancient republics, the people existed for the government, 
and they failed : in this great modern experiment, the 
government would exist for the people, and it would suc- 
ceed ; for the people would ultimately eradicate its vices, 
and identify and conserve the true elements of its vitality, 
and conditions of its growth. The Articles of Confederation 
would be superseded, but not until they had been the means 
of bringing distinctly to the view of the American people the 
inherent viciousness of the doctrine of State rights, demon- 
strating clearly the inadequacy and utter impracticability 
of a mere confederation of independent States, and usher- 
ing in the era of organic nationality under the new and 
permanent Constitution of the United States of America. 

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 

For four years and a half the confederated States had 
struggled on with all the burdens of enormous debts, and 
no power to raise money to pay ; of conflicting jurisdiction 
between the Nation and the States; with peril of incipient 



AN ORGANIC NATIONAL LIFE. 307 

rebellion, and the confusion of various governmental func- 
tions without proper classification and division of labor ; 
and a general feeling of discouragement was the result. 
The French and English people had expected great im- 
provements from the confederation, but with no good 
reason. The want of power was evident upon the face of 
the document ; and the conviction that there must be some 
chanii-e in the direction of a vital union and stronsjer 2:0V- 
ernment was becoming general. New York proposed a 
most radical change in the Articles immediately after their 
adoption. Massachusetts followed in the same track. Vir- 
ginia, at length, invited a convention of all the States to 
consider the question of duties and commerce generally ; 
and in September, 1786, delegates from Virginia, Delaware, 
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, assembled in 
Annapolis. The discussions, of course, brought under search- 
ing review the radical defects of the General Government, 
and resulted in the calling of a General Convention, to be 
held in the following May, to consider amendments to the 
Articles of Confederation, and propose such changes as would 
be " adequate to the exigencies of the Union." 

The old Continental Congress had expired. It had been 
a power in the earth. It had carried on a frightful war for 
eight years, and reached the most magnificent and improba- 
ble results. Its functions had subsided with the extraordi- 
nary condition of society which originated them ; and it 
passed away in silence, leaving to the future historian the 
grateful task of recording its heroic achievements, under 
such deprivations and limitations as would have utterly 
destroyed any assembly not vigorously sustained by Divine 
Providence. The life of the nation survived the slow decay 
and final extinction of this its first visible body, and 
promptly appeared in the Congress of the confederation. 
Soon eliminating other incongruous elements, it would take 
the form of the Congress of the United States of America, 
under the new constitution. 



308 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

The convention to which the task of preparing this im- 
portant document was assigned assembled in Philadelphia on 
the fourteenth day of May, 1787. It was not, however, until 
the twenty-fifth, eleven days later, that a quorum of States 
appeared in Independence Hall. Washington was very 
properly called to preside over this august body. It included 
many of "'the most illustrious citizens of the States ; men 
highly distinguished for talents, character, practical knowl- 
edge, and public services. The aged Franklin had sat in the 
Albany Convention of 1754, in which the first attempt had 
been made at colonial Union. Dickinson, who sat in the 
present convention as one of the members from Delaware, 
William S. Johnson of Connecticut, and John Rutledge of 
South Carolina, had participated in the Stamp-Act Congress 
of 1765. Besides Washington, Dickinson, and Rutledge, 
who had belonged to the Continental Congress of 1774, there 
were also present, from among the members of that body, 
Roger Sherman of Connecticut, William Livingston, Govern- 
or of New Jersey, George Read of Delaware, and George 
Wythe of Virginia ; and of the signers of the Declaration 
of Independence, besides Franklin, Read, Wythe, and Sher- 
man, Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, and Robert Morris, 
George Clymer, and James Wilson, of Pennsylvania. Eigh- 
teen members were at the same time delea:ates to the Con- 
tinental Congress ; and, of the whole number, there were 
only twelve who had not sat at some time in that body. The 
officers of the Revolutionary army were represented by 
Washington, Mifflin, Hamilton, and Charles Cotcsworth 
Pinckney, who had been colonel of one of the South-Caro- 
lina regiments, and at one time an aide-de-camp to Washing- 
ton. Of those members who had come prominently forward 
since the Declaration of Independence, the most conspicu- 
ous were Hamilton, Madison, and Edward Randolph, who 
had lately succeeded Patrick Henry as Governor of Virginia. 
The members who took the leading part in the debates were 
Madison, Mason, and Randolph, of Virginia ; Gerry, Gorham, 



AN ORGANIC NATIONAL LIFE. 3Q9 

and King, of Massachusetts ; Wilson, Gouverneur Morris, and 
Franklin, of Pennsylvania ; Johnson, Sherman, and Ellsworth, 
of Connecticut ; Hamilton and Lansing, of New York ; 
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, of South Carolina, the latter 
chosen governor of that State the next year ; Patterson, of 
New Jersey ; Martin, of Maryland ; Dickinson, of Delaware ; 
and Williamson, of North Carolina." * 

It is evident, that, in this historic convention, God had 
brought together in a very remarkable degree the strength, 
experience, and Avisdom of the .nation ; and the task under- 
taken required all, and more than all, they could command. 

THE CONSTITUTION FORMED. 

Let us now glance at the difficulties of the work taken in 
hand by these distinguished men. A government of free- 
dom by the people themselves had been now experimented 
only far enough to show the evils which threatened its de- 
struction. The great men of the nation had become con- 
servative by the very necessities arising from the novelty 
and extreme difficulties of their experiment. Jefferson, 
almost the only representative man who had full faith in the 
competency of the people to form and sustain a democratic 
government, was abroad. There was little danger of rash- 
ness in such an assembly. But it was certain that the great- 
est distinctness of individual opinions and most obstinate 
local prejudices would appear. 

We may now wonder at the wisdom which controlled their 
final decisions ; at the nice and accurate balances of the 
Constitution they produced ; the delicate adjustment of re- 
served and conceded rights between the people and the gov- 
ernment, between the several States and the Union, and 
between the legislative, the executive, and judicial depart- 
ments. Li each of these particulars, there were almost in- 
finite chances for fatal mistake, and but a single one for 

* Hildrcth, iii. 483, 484. 



310 THE GEE AT EEPUBLIC. 

perfect success. What surer evidence of divine guidance 
do we need than the superhuman skill shown in the clear 
definitions of riiii-hts which came from the chaos followino; the 
death-struggle for liberty ? Not merely were the complicated 
difficulties which arose from a crude and forming state of 
society to be overcome, the destructive errors of empirical 
systems to be avoided, the strong tendencies to dissolution 
and anarchy to be counteracted, but the vast future was to 
be provided for, — emergencies which at that time did not 
exist even in conception, states of society which no human 
sagacity could foresee, powers to grapple with and crush an- 
tagonisms which did not then appear even in the sphere of 
possibility, all requiring a compass and reach of wisdom which 
is under no condition the natural attribute of man. 

We cannot wonder that there was at first confusion of ideas 
in the convention ; that Washington and his compeers in this 
great crisis trembled for the fate of their country. 

We are compelled to admit tliat this distinguished body 
seemed to have forgotten their true dependence. There 
does not appear to have been that devout temper of mind, 
that humble, fervent spirit of prayer, which had pervaded 
the Eevolution. In accounting for the success of their efforts, 
and for the great wrongs which found place in the Constitu- 
tion, one event must be mentioned as of the utmost historical 
importance. For long days they labored, apparently in vain : 
anarchy and ruin alone stared them in the face. At length, 
Dr. Franklin arose, and said, " I will suggest, Mr. President, 
the propriety of nominating and appointing, before we sepa- 
rate, a chaplain to this convention, whose duty it shall be 
uniformly to assemble with us, and introduce the business 
of each day by an address to the Creator of the universe 
and the Governor of all nations, beseeching him to preside in 
our councils, enlighten our minds with a portion of heavenly 
wisdom, influence our hearts with a love of truth and jus- 
tice, and crown our labors with complete and abundant suc- 
cess." "The doctor sat down," says Mr. Dayton of New 



AN ORGANIC NATIONAL LIFE. 311 

Jersey; "and never did I behold a countenance at once so 
dignified and delighted as was that of Washington at the 
close of this address. Nor were the members of the con- 
vention generally less affected. The words of the venerable 
Franklin fell upon our ears with a weight and authority 
even greater than we may suppose an oracle to have had 
on a Roman senate." How delightful this revelation of 
a returning sense of propriety to these representatives of a 
religious people ! What honor it reflects upon the American 
sage and the Father of his Country, as well as upon " the 
members of the convention generally " ! and what hope it 
inspires that threatening dangers will be averted, and God 
appear in the words which would define our constitutional 
liberties ! 

With what mortification, then, must the Christian histo- 
rian record the fact, that " the motion was evaded by an 
adjournment. It was feared, according to Madison, lest 
prayers for the first time, at that late day, might alarm the 
public by giving the impression that matters were already 
desperate." * Alas ! what blindness can come over the 
mind of a man ! what wrong can be done by the adroitness 
of an astute politician ! 

While, however, we mournfully record the success of the 
intrigue which prevented the official enactment of this meas- 
ure, so high in dignity and profound in wisdom, we can- 
not doubt that the open acknowledgment of God in the 
address and resolution offered by Franklin, and the gene- 
ral and hearty mutual response which followed, were an- 
swered by the divine recognition and blessing. Both the 
right of this sublime proposal, and the wrong of the dispo- 
sition made of it, appear in the result. 

It is not necessary for us to follow in detail the struggles 
in the convention between the smaller and larger States. 
The former feared that their interests would be compromised 
by a strong consolidated government ; but they were paci- 

* Hildreth, iii. 495. 



312 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

fied by the concession of an equal vote ^vith the largest 
States in the Senate of the United States. 

The advocates of " States ri";hts," as ao:ainst a strono; Cen- 
tral Government, were those from Connecticut, New Jersey, 
and Delaware, with a majority from Maryland and New 
York. The delegates from New Hampshire had retired 
from the convention ; and liliode Island had become so fear- 
ful of a destruction of her influence by a consolidated Gen- 
eral Government, that she had declined to send delegates to 
the convention. The "National Party," as it was then 
termed, represented Virginia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, 
North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. How strange 
these facts appear to us at the present day ! Precisely at 
this point, the peril of the nation and the control of Provi- 
dence appear. If New Hampshire and Rhode Island had 
been present, they would doubtless have voted with the 
" States-rights " party, and no General Government would 
have been possible. 

It must be determined by whom the House of Represen- 
tatives should be chosen. Sherman, sustained by Gerry, the 
States of South Carolina and New Jersey, and a portion 
of Connecticut and Delaware, vehemently opposed election 
by the people. Had God suffered them to succeed, there 
would, so far as we can see, have been a complete end to 
the attempt to found a true republic. How wisely, then, 
w^as it ordered that Wilson, Madison, and Mason should 
stand up to defend successfully the rights of the people ! 
Thus, against numbers and influence and the highest proba- 
bility, God preserved inviolate another fundamental prin- 
ciple of our Great Republic. 

Hamilton was not easily reconciled to democracy in any 
form. He was sustained by Wilson in demanding an abso- 
lute executive veto on the acts of Congress. This would 
have been the establishment of an insuflerable despotism, 
which God would not permit. 

Two most important concessions were made to the Gen- 



AN ORGANIC NATIONAL LIFE. 313 

eral Government, — in giving it power to veto all State laws 
in conflict with the Constitution or " inconsistent with the 
harmony of the Union," and fully investing it with the 
treaty-making power. Without these, no nation could have 
been constituted. 

The most formidable dififtculty arose from the institution 
of slavery. The conflict was long and perilous ; but it 
ended in a compromise which gave the slave States a three- 
fifths representation for their human chattels. Cautiously 
avoiding the name of slavery, it tolerated the institution in 
substance, and provided for the rendition of " persons held 
to service." This was the grand vice of the great Consti- 
tution. But the demand was imperative. Davis, of North 
Carolina, expressed the true spirit of this persistent wrong 
when he arose and said " it was time to speak out. He 
saw that it was meant by some gentlemen to deprive the 
Southern States of any share of representation for their 
blacks. He was sure that North Carolina would never con- 
federate on any terms that did not rate them at least as 
three-fifths. If the Eastern States meant, therefore, to ex- 
clude them altogether, the business was at an end." The 
opponents of the vile institution yielded exactly where 
they should have stood firm ; and the irrepressible conflict 
was handed down to the great future. If it be said that 
without this compromise there could have been no national 
union, we answer. This is to affirm that men would defeat 
the great national plans of God by simply doing right ; 
that, to secure the future of the United States, it was neces- 
sary to incorporate into its fundamental law an indorse- 
ment of the largest and most complicated crime known 
among men, — a statement which cannot be written or 
read without a feeling of horror. No : the true national 
spirit loathed the corruption which so far marred the work 
of the convention, and shamelessly confronted the funda- 
mental doctrine of human freedom, for the support of which 
the American Republic was instituted, and threw the faith 

40 



314 THE GEE AT EEPUBLIC. 

of the nation firmly back on to the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, as the clear and unalterable definition of its 
principles. 

But the nation was to be further humiliated by the per- 
sistent determination of the South to provide for the im- 
portation of slaves. The grand committee of detail, to 
whom the project of a constitution had been committed ta 
perfect it, reported against taxing imports, which was so far 
the triumph of the Southern purpose to steal the bodies 
and souls of men in Africa, force them across the high seas, 
and coin money from their sale and unpaid labor. This 
attempt to render constitutional a traffic so inhuman, and 
revolting to all the feelings of justice and honor, brought 
on a storm of indisfuation. Kins; "denounced the admis- 
sion of slaves as a most grievous circumstance to his mind ; 
and he believed it would be so to a great part of the people 
of America." " He had hoped that some accommodation 
would have taken place on this subject; that at least a 
time would have been limited for the importation of slaves. 
He never could agree to let them be imported without 
limitation, and then be represented in the national legis- 
lature." Governeur Morris declared slavery " was a neflxri- 
ous institution. It was the curse of Heaven on the States 
where it prevailed." He drew in vivid contrast the deso- 
lations of the South by slavery, and the prosperity of 
the North with the hibor of freemen ; and then demanded, 
" Upon what principle is it that the slaves shall be com- 
puted in the representation ? Are they men ? Then make 
them citizens, and let them vote. Are they property? 
Why, then, is no other property included?" "The admis- 
sion of slaves into the representation, when fairly ex- 
plained, comes to this, — that the inhabitant of Georgia and 
South Carolina, who goes to the coast of Africa in defiance 
of the most sacred laws of humanity, tears away his fellow- 
creatures from their dearest connections, and damns them 
to the most cruel bondage, shall have more votes in a 



AN ORGANIC NATIONAL LIFE. 315 

government instituted for the protection of the rights of 
mankind than the citizen of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 
who views with a laudable horror so nefarious a practice." 

Now listen to a voice from the South : " South Carolina," 
said C. Pinckney, " can never receive the plan if it prohib- 
its the slave-trade. In every proposed extension of the 
powers of Congress, that State has expressly and w\atchfull_y 
excepted the power of meddling with the importation of 
negroes." The battle was a severe one ; but Southern 
tenacity again triumphed, so far as to give free license to 
the infamous traffic in slaves for twenty years. For givim^ 
the majority to this wicked act, the North received " the 
unrestricted power of Congress to enact navigation laws," 
— a miserable consideration for the utter sacrifice of riofit 
in favor of the most consummate villany the human race 
ever knew. 

Still another degradation must be fastened upon the 
nation, to appease the foul spirit of slavery. Without 
debate, the infamous clause went into the Constitution, 
" bearing," says Hildreth, '•' the plain marks of a New-Eng- 
land hand," — "No person held to service or labor in one 
State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, 
in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be dis- 
charged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered 
up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor 
may be due." 

We may now place together, as the grand facts of this 
period of our history which stand out distinctly against the 
true spirit and aim of the new government, the failure to 
adopt the motion of Franklin, providing for a solemn recog- 
nition of the sovereignty of God by daily prayer in the 
Constitutional Convention ; the entire omission of the name 
and authority of Jehovah from the Constitution ; the recog- 
nition of the right of property in man ; and the infamous 
toleration of the slave-trade, and the rendition of slaves. 
These all show that no moral or political millennium had 



316 THE GREAT KEPUBLIC. 

come ; that sin was yet mighty in the earth ; and that 
years of heroic battle for the right must precede the 
triumph of those principles of American freedom defined by 
the immortal Declaration. 

But marked progress had been made in the development 
of national unity. Compared with the old Articles of Con- 
federation, the Constitution was a bold advance in asserting 
the rights and functions of the nation, as such, in triumph- 
ing over local prejudices and sectional demands, advocated 
under the name of " State rights." 

The question sent to the several State conventions, in 
submitting the plan for approval, was not whether it was 
perfect or satisfactory in its details, but whether, on the 
whole, it should be accepted as the best that could be 
obtained. Four months of desperate efforts to find the true 
organic unity of the nation had reached this result, and 
could do no more. Should the Constitution be ratified and 
tried, or anarchy and civil war be preferred ? 

Two parties had been developed by the struggles of this 
trying period. The Federalists wanted a strong, centralized 
government. Dissatisfied with what they termed the weak- 
ness of the plan agreed upon by the Convention, they sub- 
mitted to it with the hope of amending it in the direction 
of greater power. The Democrats opposed it, as tending to 
a central despotism. They would have defeated it; but 
hoping finally to secure amendments granting more power 
to the States, and fearing the most calamitous results if 
it should be rejected, one State after another formally 
ratified it. The most desperate efforts were made to secure 
a conditional approval ; but, as this would have been fatal, 
the efforts of a large and powerful statemanship finalh' 
secured an unconditional ratification from Delaware, Penn- 
sylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, 
New Hampshire, Maryland, South Carolina, Virginia, and 
New York. Several of these States, following the lead of 
Massachusetts, sent forward with their official notice of 



AN ORGANIC NATIONAL LIFE. 317 

ratification various fundamental amend ments, which served 
chiefly to show what concessions the sections had made for 
the sake of unity. North CaroHna imposed conditions ; and 
Rhode Island was too democratic to hold a convention. 
These two States could not, therefore, be counted ; but, as 
the vote of the nine States was conclusive, the new Consti- 
tution became the organic law of the nation. 

For three hundred years, God had been steadily and visi- 
bly moving the elements of civil liberty and moral power 
for the accomplishment of this grand result. The most 
improbable combinations had been formed ; the resources of 
remote islands and continents had been gathered ; peoples 
of distant origin, and tongues unknown to each other, had 
been drawn together by forces which they little understood ; 
the most formidable arrangements of power had been dashed 
to atoms; and minds utterly diverse in opinions, prejudices, 
and culture, had been quietly moulded by invisible agency 
to render this sublime result possible. But the American 
people were no longer floating bodies of aimless adven- 
turers ; nor mere separate colonies, dependent upon the will 
of a distant power ; nor independent confederate States. 
They were a new, vigorous, and completely organized nation. 



CHAPTER IX. 
TRUE CHRISTIANITY AN INDESTRUCTIBLE NATIONAL LIFE. 

" The great comprehensive truths written in letters of living light on every page of 
our liistory are tliese : Human happiness has no perfect security but freedom, freedom 
none but virtue, virtue none but knowledge; and neither freedom nor virtue has any 
vigor or immortal hope except in the principles of the Cliristian faith and in the sanctions 
of the Christian religion." — President Quinct. 

A FORM of government is to be distinguished from the life 
of a nation. Peoples find themselves thrown into neigh- 
borhood relations, and a social order rises up from the very 
necessities of contiguity, reciprocal wants, and acts of kind- 
ness. They may increase so much in numbers, and reach 
over a territory so far, as to have the magnitude and the 
outward forms of a nation. They may organize with all 
the laws of civil society, make treaties, and perform all 
other acts of nationjd sovereigntj' ; and yet they may be 
without any essential pervading vitality. Angry disputes 
and sectional jealousies will separate and destroy them. 
Their local ors-auizations and civil liberties will become a 
prey to the ambition of the most powerful chief and his 
bands of marauders. No national life will appear to rescue 
the common government from the hand of violence, or pre- 
serve the oro-anization from dissolution. 

o 

Then a despotic ruler may assert sovereignty over 
provinces near or remote. Conquered territory may be 
annexed, by the action of force, to a kingdom of vast 
resources and military power; but if nothing homogeneous 
appears, if there are no common bonds of interest and 
mutual dependence, if no vital force circulates through the 



318 



AN" INDESTRUCTIBLE NATIONAL LIFE. 319 

whole, when the restraints of power are removed, disintegra- 
tion, revolution, and separate independencies, become inevi- 
table. 

There are various formins; intiuences and oro-anizing: forces 
which enter into the combinations of separate governments. 
They collect and associate and develop until they reach 
their limits ; and then, unless they are supplemented by 
others of greater vigor, and compass of effect, the national 
organism goes into decay. Its life is shown to be tem- 
porary, and goes out before our eyes. Whenever the com- 
binations are arbitrary and in defiance of geographical or 
other physical facts, or when they are accidental, prompted 
by mere temporary convenience, and against historical affini- 
ties and moral necessities, they soon break up, and end in 
anarchy, or perhaps in destructive war. The length of time 
that heterogeneous peoples may be kept together in civil 
compacts is of no importance in this discussion. This is 
generally a question of power; and also, doubtless, of the 
ulterior designs of Providence in regard to the timely 
development of organizing forces which shall show work 
desio-ned to last throuo;h the asj-es to come. 

Such has been the ceaseless round of rise and decline, of 
the growth and decay, of nations, that many have doubted 
strongly whether there is any such thing as an indestructi- 
ble national life. It seems to have been largely concluded 
that nations must follow the analogy of human bodies ; pass 
their infancj', youth, manhood, and decay, by inevitable 
laws : and it must be confessed that there is much in the 
ceaseless revolutions of civil society to render this view 
plausible. We are, however, convinced that it is a grand 
fallacy. Its assumptions and arguments are all regardless 
of the great fact and power of right in human organiza- 
tions. The right, the good, the true, must certainly be 
immortal. Let the law of justice have its place, let God 
control the organization and administration of government, 
let human obstructions to the plans of the Infinite dis- 



320 THE GEEAT REPUBLIC. 

appear, and the will of God be enacted in organic and statute 
law and maintained in the administration, and there is no 
reason why a nation should not be as orderly in develop- 
ment, as vital and indestructible, as any form of life on this 
earth. 

The grand question is, whether this can be, w^hether it is, 
or will be, anywhere realized. We now direct our attention 
to the solution of this question, feeling that every step in 
the logical progress is upon solid rock. 

THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN THE FORMATION OF THE REPUBLIC. 

The nations are like their gods. The ideas which a 
people entertain of the Supreme Power will mould their 
opinions and control their actions. In other words, the 
religion of a government will determine its character, and 
settle the question of its duration. 

Hero-worship is one form of religious devotion. The 
highest wisdom of a people under its control will be simply 
human. The real or assumed virtues of the hero will be 
the highest type of public virtue ; while his vices will be as 
much matters of imitation and admiration as though they 
were virtues. Hence the governments which deified war- 
riors were bloodthirsty and cruel. Those who exalted to 
the honors of worship the patrons of inebriety and lust 
became deeply depraved in private and public morals. 
The gods and goddesses of Greece and Rome were the 
creations of corrupt imaginations, and apologies for the 
deepest degradation. Hence the life of these nations could 
only endure till these natural and acquired elements of 
corruption had wrought out their legitimate results. There 
was, moreover, an assault upon the rights and requirements 
of the one true God in this guilty idolatry, which must 
bring down his displeasure upon them, and result in their 
signal destruction. 

Take a modern instance of the power of religious opinion 



AN INDESTRUCTIBLE NATIONAL LIFE. 321 

and the rejection of the true worship to destroy freedom. 
France, in its terrific revolution, saw the violent culmination 
of theoretical and practical infidelity. When the blas- 
phemous atheists of those degenerate times installed a 
prostitute as the Goddess of Reason, abolished the Christian 
sabbath, and decreed that death is an eternal sleep, they 
prepared the way for the power of faction ; for the murder 
of thousands of the best citizens and the worst ; for the sub- 
version of all right, and the enthronement of passion as the 
sovereign of the hour. 

The liberties of England were never consolidated until 
the worship of God became national ; and never endangered, 
excepting as the rights of the individual conscience were 
denied as to the modes of that worship. 

The struggles of Puritanism intensified the religious con- 
sciousness of the nation, and brought forv/ard the grand 
principle of the Reformation, — the rights of the individual 
conscience, — demanding prompt acknowdedgment from the 
throne. The power of the Reformation, but graduall}* 
developed, was, under the surface, more active and influ- 
ential than could be evident in the forms of a State religion 
and a forced external conformity. It moulded the thinking 
and the deepest convictions of the masses, imperceptibly 
constructed the great controlling laws and administration 
of the kingdom, and bore the people onward toward truer 
liberty by the action of a broad and deep and irresistible 
current. 

It was evidently the divine purpose that it should con- 
duct in England its grand preparations for constructing and 
inspiring a government of liberty in the New World. In 
the Old, it could insist upon the right ; it could appeal from 
the decisions of man to the Searcher of hearts ; it could be 
overborne and crucified, but not destroyed. It rose with 
a new power from its baptisms of blood, and gathered its 
friends and representative heroes for an advent to a scene 
of development and influence hitherto unknown. 



322 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

It may here with propriety be re-affirraed that Christianity 
was the guiding power of American colonization, and the 
forming force of American institutions. 

When the people came to Virginia, they came to estab- 
lish religion by law as the divine right of Prelacy in the New 
World. When they moved out among the Indians, their 
first object was to make them Christians. The Quakers 
came to Ncav Jersey, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, that 
they might follow, without obstruction, the light within ; 
the Huguenots came to this virgin land that they might 
worship the true God, with no bloody persecutions, no 
reeking St. Bartholomews, for the exercise of a sincere 
conscience ; the Roman Catholics sought a home in Balti- 
more that they might plant their degenerate faith in the 
New World ; and the Puritans of New England were in 
America for no other reason than that they might secure 
freedom to worship God. The Congregationalists felt that 
there was something pleasing to God in the very act of 
independence in the individual Church. The Presbyterians 
meant nothing but acceptable service to the God of order 
in the strict conventional responsibilities of the presbytery, 
the synod, and the assembly. The Baptists believed that 
Rhode Island was a model State, under the genius of Roger 
Williams, in the free exercise of immersion, and the great 
power assigned to spiritual thought, true conscience, and 
devout worship. The Methodists came into all the land like 
a flaming fire, to consume iniquity, and show that creeds 
and dogmas were all nothing without true conversion, and 
reformation of life. Upon the whole, the really great com- 
mon universal idea and prevalent power of the American 
colonies was religion. Whatever might be held subject to 
expediency, this could not. Whatever might be subjugated, 
compromised, surrendered, this coidd not. If any thing was 
truly American, it was the feeling of worship. 

We have seen how its defective education and slow de- 
velopment brought its various theories into spirited collis- 



AjSt indestructible jtational life. 323 

ions ; how indispensable it was that its errors should be 
eliminated, and its pure principles should shine out without 
obstruction. And we have seen, also, that American Chris- 
tianity was growing to power under at least two new con- 
ditions : first, that it was master here, and not subordinate, — 
umpire, and not convict; that, instead of asking leave of 
the civil power to exist, it would decide rather what else 
but itself should exist here. Slowly, but obviously, Chris- 
tian right, Christian justice, rose to the head of affiiirs, and, 
instead of humbly pleading for toleration, claimed the right 
to denounce and put down every form of iniquity known 
among men. Next it gradually awoke to the fact that the 
weapons of its warfare were not carnal, but spiritual, and 
mighty, through God, to the pulling-down of strongholds. 
The force of traditional prerogatives and prescriptive usage 
became weaker every year; and the holy Bible rose in 
clearness and power as the great standard of appeal. The 
redundant appendages of pure, simple Christianity, which 
had come down from Papal authority, were seen rapidly 
falling off and disappearing. Simple and more simple every 
day became the great truth, that a free, personal application 
of the blood of Christ alone cleansed from sin, and that only 
the pure in heart were blessed ; and the great Reformation 
(re-formation) of souls and society which followed the plain, 
honest, searching publication of divine truth, proved that 
the tabernacle of God was with men, and that the spirit of 
humble Christianity was from heaven. 

Hence appeared more and more distinctly the great fact, 
that soul-liberty revived in the regeneration was the essence 
and type of civil liberty, and that there could be no gov- 
ernment entitled to permanence and universal sway that 
did not acknowledge the sovereignty of God, the rights of 
man, and the principles of eternal justice. Then vanished 
the obstructions which had been thrown around the indi- 
vidual conscience ; and State after State, and finally the 
General Government, declared the worship of God to be 



324 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

free, and man to be personally accountable to God alone for 
the honest fulfilment of relisrious oblieration. 

Just in proportion as the freedom of discussion in this fair 
field should work out the Popish element of coercion in 
religion, and give ascendency to the pure forms of experi- 
mental and practical Christianity, it would become a power 
in the new nation. It would, moreover, exert a vast influ- 
ence upon the thinking and convictions of statesmen and 
educators, in the exaltation of justice and ever}^ form of 
public virtue. It would slowly but powerfully mould the 
laws and administrative government of the country. Private 
and public men would be imperceptibly controlled by its 
holy teachings, sin would be discountenanced as a reproach 
to any people, and righteousness invoked, which alone ex- 
altetli a nation. Far from being always ostensible and out- 
wardly exacting, this humble, quiet spirit would silently 
permeate all public bodies, and powerfully control all public 
functionaries. 

All this became historical in America. For though pure 
religion was far from being universal in the period of inde- 
pendence, and though for ages to come great public wrongs 
would assert their right to place amid the institutions of 
American freedom, they kept their position against the 
energetic protest of divine Christianity ; and one after an- 
other yielded to the vigor of a force which they could in 
no wise withstand. Men and manners, institutions and 
administrations, practically acknowledged the presence of a 
silent influence which had, from the beginning, asserted its 
right to be the dominant power of the nation. 

This at length may be claimed to be the most sacred 
faith of the people : The Bible, freely read, and interpreted 
according to the best judgment of the individual, is the 
great standard of right and justice, — the guide to purity on 
earth, and happiness in heaven ; God is the great Sovereign 
of nations ; no law, no usage, however venerable in prece- 
dent or high in authority, to be considered legitimate or 



AN INDESTEUCTIBLE NATIONAL LIFE. 325 

permanent, if at war with the will of Gocl ; the most fearless 
condemnation of sin, the most complete recognition of the 
brotherhood of the race, the most humble trust in the Re- 
deemer, and the most thorough forms of gospel evangelism, 
are the most acceptable to the people. This is the religion 
of the Great Republic. 

THE RELIGION OF THE NATION IN OFFICIAL ACTS AND PUBLIC MEN. 

Let us now" see the action of this great public force 
through the representatives of the people. 

On the IGth of March, 1776, Mr. William Livingston, 
pursuant to leave granted, brought in a resolution for 
appointing a fast ; which, being taken into consideration, was 
agreed to as follows : " In times of impending calamity and 
distress, when the liberties of America are eminently en- 
dangered by the secret machinations of a vindictive admin- 
istration, it becomes the duty of these hitherto free and 
happy colonies, with true penitence of heart and the most 
reverent devotion, publicly to acknowledge the overruling 
providence of God ; to confess and deplore our offences 
against him ; and to supplicate his interposition for averting 
the threatened danger, and prospering our strenuous efforts 
in the cause of freedom, virtue, and prosperity. The Con- 
gress, therefore, considering the warlike preparations of the 
British ministry to subvert our invaluable rights and privi- 
leges, and reduce us by fire and sword, by the savages of 
the wilderness, and our own domestics, to the most abject 
and ignominious bondage ; desirous, at the same time, to have 
people of all ranks and degrees duly impressed with a sol- 
emn sense of God's superintending providence, and of their 
duty devoutly to rely, in all their lawful enterprises, on his 
aid and direction, — do earnestly recommend that Friday, the 
seventeenth day of May next, be observed by the said colo- 
nies as a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer, that we 
may, with united hearts, confess and bewail our manifold 



326 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

sins and transgressions, and by a sincere rejjentance, and 
amendment of life, appease his righteous displeasure, and, 
through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, obtain 
his pardon and forgiveness; humbly imploring his assist- 
ance to frustrate the cruel purposes of our unnatural ene- 
mies, and, by inclining their hearts to justice and benevo- 
lence, prevent the further effusion of kindred blood. But 
if, continuing deaf to the voice of reason and humanity, 
and inflexibly bent on desolation and war, they constrain us 
to repel their hostile invasions by open resistance, that it 
may please the Lord of hosts and the God of armies to ani- 
mate our officers and soldiers with invincible fortitude, to 
guard and protect them in the day of battle, and to crown 
the continental arms, by sea and land, with victory and suc- 
cess ; earnestly beseeching him to bless our civil rulers, and 
the representatives of the people, in their several assem- 
blies and conventions ; to preserve and strengthen their 
Union ; to inspire them with an ardent, disinterested love 
of their country ; to give wisdom and stability to their 
counsels, and direct them to the more efficacious measures 
for establishinijr the ri^-hts of America on the most honorable 
and permanent basis ; tliat he would be graciously pleased 
to bless all his people in these colonies with health and 
plenty, and grant that a spirit of incorruptible patriotism, 
and of pure undefded religion, may universally prevail, and 
this continent be speedily restored to the blessings of peace 
and liberty, and enabled to transmit them inviolate to the 
latest posterity. And it is recommended to Christians of all 
denominations to assemble for public worship, and abstain 
from all servile labor, on said day." 

This was the statesmanship of the Revolution, — a clear, 
calm recognition of God, and '• the merits and mediation of 
Jesus Christ," as our only hope of "pardon," and the "assist- 
ance " which our struggle for liberty required. And let it 
not be supposed that this was a sudden ebullition of fear. 
It was so often repeated, and these holy principles were 



AN INDESTRUCTIBLE NATIONAL LIFE. 327 

asserted in such a variety of forms, in language and acts of 
such deep solemnity, as to show clearly a firm, unalterable 
faith in the attributes and promises of God, in the efficacy 
of Christ's mediation, and in the power of prayer. 

On the eleventh day of December of the same year, we 
find these noble representatives of struggling freedom 
adopting a report from a committee, consisting of Mr. With- 
erspoon, Mr. E. H. Lee, and Mr. Adams, couched in the fol- 
lowing language : " Whereas, The war in which the United 
States are engaged with Great Britain has not only been 
prolonged, but is likely to be carried to the greatest 
extremity ; and whereas it becomes all public bodies, as 
well as private persons, to reverence the providence of God, 
and look up to him as the supreme Disposer of all events 
and the arbiter of the fate of nations : therefore 

" Resolved, That it is recommended to all the United 
States, as soon as possible, to appoint a day of solemn fasting 
and humiliation, to implore of Almighty God the forgiveness 
of the many sins prevailing among all ranks, and to beg the 
continuance and assistance of his providence in the prose- 
cution of the present just and necessary w^ar. The Congress 
do also, in the most earnest manner, recommend to all the 
members of the United States, and particularly the officers, 
civil and military, under them, the exercise of repentance 
and reformation ; and further require of them the strict 
observation of the articles of war, and particularly that part 
of the said articles which forbids profane swearing and all 
immorality, of which all such officers are desired to take 
notice." 

These grave and formal recognitions of fundamental, 
evangelical truth are truly national, promulgated in language 
of deepest solemnity by the highest authority of tlie people, 
corresponding precisely with the tone and expressions of that 
inmiortal document, the Declaration of Independence, which 
in this place we present again : " We therefore, the repre- 
sentatives of the United States of America in General Con- 



328 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

gress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the 
world for the rectitude of our intentions ; . . . and for the 
support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the pro- 
tection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each 
other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." Before 
such appeals, tyrants must have stood awe-struck and 
trembling, as in the presence of inevitable doom. 

When the slorm of war was still rairinoi', and it would 
seem that nothini»: could divert for a moment the attention 
of these wonderful men from the immediate preparation 
which the contest required, on the 11th of September, 
1777, we find them gravely considering and adopting the 
report of a committee on a memorial of Dr. Allison and 
others, asking for means for a sujDply of the Holy Scriptures. 
And what do they say ? Sceptically, " We attend to the exi- 
gencies of the war : we have neither time nor disposition to 
consider questions of religion ; we leave them to clergymen 
and enthusiasts " ? No. They say, " That the use of the Bible 
is so universal, and its importance so great, that your com- 
mittee refer the above to the consideration of Congress ; and, 
if Congress shall not think it expedient to order the impor- 
tation of types and paper, the committee recommend that 
Congress will order the Committee of Commerce to import 
TWENTY THOUSAND BiBLES fi'om Holland, Scotland, or else- 
where, into the different ports of the States of the Union." 
"Wherefore it was moved and carried. That the Committee 
of Commerce be directed to import twenty thousand copies 
of tlie Bible." The embargo prevented the carrying-out of 
this worthy enterprise; and in 1782 we find another "Na- 
tional Act in behalf of the Bible." Mr. Robert Aitkin of 
PhiUidelphia proposed to Congress to print an edition of 
the Scriptures. The matter was given to a committee, who, 
with the chaplains, thoroughly examined the copy he sub- 
mitted, and reported in favor of the measure : whereupon 
it was 

'' JResolved, That the United States, in Congress assembled. 



AN IKDESTEUCTIBLE NATIONAL LIFE. 329 

highly approve of the pious and laudable undertaking of 
Mr. Aitkin, as subservient to the interests of religion, as well 
as an instance of the progress of the arts in this country ; 
and being satisfied, from the above report, of his care and 
accuracy in the execution of the work, they recommend 
this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United 
States, and hereby authorize him to publish this recom- 
mendation in the manner he shall think proper." Thus 
did the Holy Bible become the great and only national book 
of the United States of America, and the only definition of 
the reliofion of the nation. 

We have seen how devoutly the fathers of the Kevolution 
turned to God for help in the day of battle. Did they forget 
in the hour of victory the principles which had controlled 
them in their deepest distress ? Surely no ! When the glo- 
rious news arrived from the battle of Saratoga, Congress set 
apart the eighteenth day of December, 1777, as a day of 
soleum thanksgiving and praise throughout the United 
States ; and, upon the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, 
" Congress resolved to go in a body to the Dutch Lutheran 
Church to return thanks to Almighty God for crowning the 
allied arms with success ; and issued a proclamation, appoint- 
ing the thirteenth day of December, 1781, as a day of gen- 
eral thanksgiving and prayer on account of this signal 
interposition of Divine Providence." " God," -:- in the judg- 
ment of these great representative men, — " Almighty God, 
had crowned the American arms with success ; " and they 
were soon, as a body, reverently bowed before him, to render 
thanks to him for the triumph of the people in their bloody 
conflict with oppression. 

The War of the Revolution was over; and on the twenty- 
sixth day of August, 1783, the immortal Washington was 
summoned to Congress to receive the official congratulations 
of his countrymen. The expressions of gratitude and 
eulogy were dignified, but exceedingly strong ; and it is in- 
tensely interesting to know with what feelings he came out 



330 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

of this fearful struo-orle. The foUowhio* words conclude his 
terse and appropriate reply : " Perhaps, sir, no occasion may 
offer, more suitable than the present, to express my humble 
thanks to God, and my grateful acknowledgments to my 
country, for the great and uniform support I have received 
in every vicissitude of fortune, and for the many distin- 
guished honors which Congress has been pleased to confer 
upon me in the course of the Avar." Washington renders 
" humble thanks to God," the Being who, as we have seen, 
had been so devoutly addressed in the prayers urgently 
invited by Congress for the success of the American arms. 

In the o-reat act of the resio-nation, we find him alludintj: 
reverently to "the patronage of Heaven," and his " gratitude 
lor the interposition of Providence." Who can read, with- 
out profound emotion, the following language ? — "I consider 
it an indispensable duty to close this last act of my official 
life by committing the interests of our dearest country to 
the protection of Almighty God ; and those who have the 
superintendence of them, to his holy keeping." Immortal 
sage, honored of God and man! — inay the inspirations of 
thy exalted statesmanship fall upon the future represen- 
tatives of American liberty ! 

We have thus before us the devout manner in which the 
Father of his Country passed through the eight years of his 
military life. Let us now observe the spirit with which he 
began his civil career. On the thirtieth day of April, 1781), 
he who had surrendered his sword to the people he had 
saved, at the very time when, according to the history of 
human ambition, he should have used it to fasten upon them 
the chains of a military despotism, was inaugurated the first 
Chief Mas-istrate of the new nation. With unaffected dig- 
nity and humilit}', he had mentioned the anxieties and self- 
distrust which mingled with his gratitude and joy ; and 
he then added, " Such being the impressions under which I 
liave, in oljedience to the public summons, repaired to the 
present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in 



AN INDESTRUCTIBLE NATIONAL LIFE. 331 

this first official act my fervent supplications to that 
Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides 
in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can 
supply every human defect, that his benediction may con- 
secrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the 
United States a government instituted by themselves for 
these essential purposes ; and may enable every instru- 
ment, employed in its administration, to execute with suc- 
cess the functions allotted to his charsje. In tenderino: this 
homage to the great Author of every public and private 
good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not 
less than my own, nor those of my fellow-citizens at large 
less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge 
and adore the invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of 
men more than the people of the United States, Every 
step by which they have advanced to the character of an 
independent nation seems to have been distinguished by 
some token of providential agency ; and in the important 
Revolution just accomplished, in the system of their united 
government, the tranquil deUberations and voluntary con- 
sent of so many distinct communities from which the event 
has resulted cannot be compared with the means by which 
most governments have been established, without some re- 
turn of pious gratitude, along with a humble anticipation 
of the future blessings which the past seems to presage. The 
reflections arising out of the present crisis have forced them- 
selves too strongly upon my mind to be suppressed. You 
will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none 
under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and 
free government can more auspiciously commence." Thus 
spake the great Washington, — the broadest, truest represen- 
tative man of his country and of his age. He felt the heavy 
pressure of this hitherto unequalled responsibility, and bore 
his burden immediately to the throne of grace. He could not 
perform his first official act without presenting his "fervent 
supplications to that Almighty Being who presides over the 



332 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

councils of nations, and whose providential aid can supply 
every human defect ; " and, " in tendering this homage to 
the great Author of every public and private good," he 
believes that he expresses the sentiments of the members 
of Congress, and of his " fellow-citizens at large," not less 
than his own ; states most forcibly the paramount obliga- 
tion of the American people to " acknowledge and adore 
the invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men ; " and 
solemnly affirms " that every step by which they have 
advanced to the character of an independent nation seems 
to have been distinguished by some token of providential 
agency." With what profound satisfaction do we find here 
thus vigorously and reverently stated, as if from the very 
heart and intellect of the Great Republic, the broad, funda- 
mental idea under the control of which this book is written ! 



THE RELIGION OF AMERICA CONSTRUCTS A GRAND AND DURABLE 

GOVERNMENT. 

We have seen that the outward forms of the nation were 
marred with great defects, and that vices utterly inconsistent 
with the fundamental principles of liberty sought to incor- 
porate themselves into the organic law, and, by obstinate 
persistence and astute scheming, obtained an apologetic, 
deprecatory expression in that great instrument ; but we 
have also seen that the grand, fundamental fact of repub- 
lican freedom took its position of rank and power to fight 
the battles of justice through the ages, and to triumph glo- 
riously when the fulness of time had come. 

But we may now glory in the potential reason why right 
triumphed over might in the War of Independence ; why 
the true theory of government emerged with such clear- 
ness and vigor from the conflicts with English despotism ; 
why the freedom of speech and the press, the ballot and 
the pulpit, triumphed over the restrictions which Papal big- 
otry had for ages imposed upon the energies of mind and 



AN" INDESTRUCTIBLE NATIONAL LIFE. 333' 

the struggles of modern civilization ; why there was power 
enough in conceded rights to eradicate the most inveterate 
evils which had come down from the past. God was the 
recognized Sovereign of the nation. In the spirit of true 
humility, all the great achievements of the past were 
ascribed to him ; and, in fervent prayer, all the difficult 
problems and severe trials of the future were confided to 
his infinite wisdom and sovereign control. 

Besides, and above all that could be found in the convic- 
tions and acts of men, there was the historical development 
of a divine plan for establishing a nation in advance of any 
that had gone before in the great principles of civil and 
religious liberty, and providing for a new development of 
Christian civilization. Hence, and hence only, the amazing 
foresight and prospective adjustments of that forming age, — 
provisions as complete for future unknown emergencies as 
for those which were present. For this reason, despite all 
its imperfections and wrongs condemned for future destruc- 
tion, the government has risen in majesty and glory, while 
rival theories have paled before its steady and increasing 
light. Philosophical attempts to show its impracticability, 
and malignant prophecies of its failure, have alike disap- 
peared amid the splendors of its march, until jealous tyrants 
have alternately eulogized and cursed it ; and the longing- 
eyes of the oppressed of all nations have turned to it as the 
star of hope amid the darkness of despotism. How evidently, 
therefore, is the whole system pervaded by the elements of 
an immortal life ! The religious influence which presided 
over its councils, and gave more than human energy to its 
contending armies, has entered into every organ and tissue 
of the body politic, and rendered clear as light the fact of a 
divine purpose in its organization and development. 

American liberty — what language can express the glow 
of rapture with which we contemplate it? We feel the 
thrill of its life and the throb of its joy as it courses through 
our veins. Liberty to think and utter our thoughts ; 



334 THE GREAT BEPUBLIC. 

liberty to write and print «ind read, and no fear of servile 
police or loathsome cells or murderous injustice; liberty 
to study and proclaim God's holy word, kneel at his sacred 
altar, and claim for ourselves the blood of atonement, w^ith 
no intervening priest, and no artificial terrors from the thun- 
ders of the Vatican, — with what gratitude ought we to rec- 
ognize privileges so exalted, as the gift of Providence alone ! 
But if God be the author of the American system, then 
here is our grand reliance for permanence and prosperity. 
We need not be alarmed at the threatening rivalry of selfish 
politicians, nor the murmurings of sectional strife. Our 
gallant ship of State will mount the foaming crest, or plunge 
into ocean deeps, with no peril or harm. Amid the wailings 
of the storm, you shall hear from her towering mast the 
joyous cry of " Land ahead ! " to hush every fear, and fill 
every throbbing heart wdth joy. The ambitious partisan 
may sound the alarm of impending ruin, — ruin upon a 
given contingency, and ruin upon the exact opposite : but, 
by the hand of power which guides our destiny, mere poli- 
ticians will hereafter, as before, be used or swept aside like 
cobwebs ; while our glorious Republic will move on, in the 
sphere of a wise and comprehensive Providence, to accom- 
plish her great mission. The life-power of the nation is 
mdestructible. 







[FliiKi€QS ASIBril^lTa 



PERIOD III. 

DEVELOPMENT. 



CHAPTER I. 

DEVELOPMENT OF POPULATION. 

" Whilst our old European centre is like a volcano, consuming itself in its own crater, 
the two nations, Oriental and Occidental, proceed unhesitatingly toward perfection, — the 
one at the will of one man, the other by liberty. Providence has confided to the United 
States of America the care of peopling, and of gaining over to civilization, all that 
immense territory which extends from the Atlantic to the South Sea, and from the 
North Pole to the Equator." — Louis Napoleon. 

Tpie stirring events which have passed before us indicate 
a grand providential preparation for the organized develop- 
ment of Christian civilization. This purpose would, of 
course, require a numerous population. 

The severe trials of the Revolution had seriously retarded 
immigration. In 1775, the estimates of population made by 
Congress were as follows : — 



Massachusetts . 


. 400,000 


Pennsylvania . 


. 350,000 


New Hampshire 


. 150,000 


Maryland . . 


. 320,000 


Rhode Island . 


. 50,678 


Virginia . . 


. 650,000 


Connecticut 


. . 192,000 


North Carolina 


. 300,000 


New York . 


. 250,000 


South Carolina 


. 225,000 


New Jersey 


. 130,000 


Total . . 


3,017,678 



In a brief period, the plans of God for the ingathering of 
the people upon a larger scale would be evident and effectual. 



335 



336 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 



INCREASE OF POPULATION. 

The country soon became more attractive to those who 
desired to improve their circumstances. The immense 
forests of valuable timber, the fisheries, the broad acres of 
productive grain-lands, and the extraordinary facilities for 
manufacturing and commerce, invited enterprise from every 
country of the Old World. 

There was, moreover, in the idea of liberty, a charm 
which the aristocratic governments of Europe could in no 
way counteract. In the absence of steam and telegraphs, 
and on account of the limited circulation of newspapers, 
information forced its way slowly, but at length widely, 
through the masses ; and, soon after the close of the Revo- 
lutionary War, considerable numbers found means to trans- 
port themselves to this land of liberty and plenty. 

In 1800, the United States numbered 5,305,925 ; in 1810, 
7,239,815; in 1820, 9,638,121; in 1830, 12,866,020; in 
1840, 17,069,453; in 1850, 23,191,876 ; in 1860, 31,443,322; 
including Indian tribes, &c., 31,747,514; and, at the close 
of 1866, the number had risen to 34,605,882. 

Sir Morton Peto remarks that " there is nothing in the 
Old World to equal this rate of progress. The population 
of Great Britain and Ireland in 1800 was 16,000,000, and 
in 1861 was under 30,000,000. Since 1830, the population 
of the United States has increased 19,000,000, whilst that 
of our kingdom has increased less than 6,000,000." 

In 1860, the fifteen then slaveholding States contained 
12,240,000 inhabitants ; a gain, in ten years, of 2,627,000, or 
27.33 per cent. The nineteen free States, seven Territories, 
and District of Columbia, contained 19,201,546 persons ; 
showing an increase, in ten years, of 5,598,603, or 41.24 
per cent. The whole gain in the decade from which most 
of our figures are taken was 8,225,603 souls; and from 
1860 to 1866 the increase was 3,162,560. 



DEVELOPMENT OF POPULATION. 



337 



SOURCES OF POPULATION. 

It is a remarkable fact, that not more than one-third of 
this rapidly-increasing population is native in birth and 
descent; or, in other words, two-thirds are immigrants and 
their descendants. Without this element, it is estimated 
that, in 1863, our population would have reached less than 
10,500,000 ; while the population from abroad, and their 
descendants, exceeded 21,000,000. 

The ratio of increase from immigration is as follows : 
In the ten years ending 1829, the number was 128,502 ; 
in ten years ending 1839, we received 538,381 ; in ten 
years ending 1849, 1,427,337 ; in eleven years ending 1860, 
2,968,194; making, in some forty-one years, 5,062,414. 

The following figures will show us in detail the sources of 
our incoming population for forty years, ending with 1860 : — 



Grreat Britain & Ireland. 

Germany 

France 

Prussia 

China 

West Indies . . . . 
Switzerland . . . . 
Norway and Sweden 

Holland 

Mexico 



2,750,874 
1,486,044 
208,063 
60,432 
41,443 
40,487 
37,733 
36,129 
21,579 
17,766 



Spain 16,248 

Italy 11,202 

Belgium 9,862 

South America .... 6,201 

Denmark 5,540 

Azores 3,242 

Portugal 2,614 

Sardinia 2,030 

Poland 1,659 

Russia 1,374 



It thus appears that Providence designs to bring accessions 
to our Anglo-Saxon population from all the peoples and 
civilizations of Europe, with considerable numbers from 
Asia and the islands of the ocean. 

The native stock, amounting, as we have seen, to over ten 
milhons, may be found pervading all our communities, and 
mingling with all classes of immigrants in active business 
relations, organizing American institutions, and developing 
the resources of the Great Republic. 

The people of African descent, in 1860 numbering 



43 



338 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

4,435,709, have by unparalleled toil, despite all the disabili- 
ties of a cruel servitude, contributed largely to the material 
wealth of the country. They have been used, in the order 
of Providence, to impose upon us some of the hardest prob- 
lems which civil liberty has ever had to solve. In regard 
to them, the plans of God are becoming more evident, cul- 
minating in the severest rebuke of caste, and punishment of 
despotic usurpation, and in the forced acknowledgment of 
universal manhood and equal rights. 

Only a small number of the aborigines of our territory, 
estimated in 1860 at 294,431, have become, citizens. Gen- 
erally they roam through our vast forests, retaining their 
barbarous habits, adopting only the vicious customs of the 
whites ; sometimes receiving with artless gratitude the acts 
of justice or paternal care bestowed by the government; 
sometimes submitting in passive sullenness to the wrongs 
inflicted upon them, and then rousing in terrific revenge for 
real or fancied injuries. The benevolent labors of Christian 
missionaries have, however, greatly ameliorated the condi- 
tion of many of their tribes, securing to considerable num- 
bers the blessings of Christian education and experience, 
and the arts of civilized life ; thus bringing out the fact of 
their manhood, and revealing capabilities of honorable rank 
among the families of earth. It is painful to think of the 
savage cruelties and bloody wars which might have been 
avoided by a prompter Christian civilization. 



CHARACTER OF POPULATION. 

High rank, professional ability, and capital seeking investr 
ment, have found their way to this country from abroad ; but 
immigrants have generally been of the industrial classes. 
These, together with our native-born people, have given 
to our frontier settlements an unusual degree of enterprise 
and vigor, and brought out rapidly the resources of our 
virgin soil. 



DEVELOPMENT OF POPULATION. 



339 



The employments of our foreign-born population strik- 
ingly indicate their habits of thought and feeling, and the 
character of their influence upon American industry and 
society. The public registers give their occupations only 
to a limited extent, and yet sufficiently for our present 
purpose. Of, say two millions, 872,317 are laborers; 
764,837, farmers; 407,524, mechanics; 231,852, merchants; 
49,494, servants ; 39,967, miners; 29,484, mariners ; 11,557, 
weavers and spinners; 5,246, seamstresses and milliners; 
7,109, physicians; 4,326, clergymen; 3,882, clerks; 3,634, 
tailors; 3,474, shoemakers; 3,120, manufacturers; 2,676, law- 
yers; 2,490, artists; 2,310, masons; 2,016, engineers; 1,528, 
teachers; 1,272, bakers; 945, butchers; 729, musicians; 705, 
printers; 647, painters; 631, millers; 588, actors. 

These figures show that the people were used to work in 
the Old World, and that they came here to work. 

The employments of a large number of the whole nation 
at any one time will furnish a broader view of the character 
of the American population. 

In 1860, there were about 8,217,000 heads of families. 
The occupations of some 6,000,000, of various conditions, 
were as follows : — 



Apprentices . . 
Bakers .... 
Barbers 
Bar-keepers 
Blacksmiths . 
Boarding-house Keepi 
Bricklayers 
Brickmakers . 
Butchers . . 
Carpenters 
Oabinetrmakers 
Carters .... 
Civil Engineers . 
Clerks .... 
Clergymen . . 
Coach-makers . . 
Coopers . . . 



55,326 
19,001 
11,140 
13,263 

112,357 
12,148 
14,311 
13,736 
30,103 

242,958 
29,223 
21,640 
27,437 

184,485 
37,529 
19,180 
43,624 



Drivers 19,521 

Druggists 11,031 

Farmers & Farm-laborers 3,219,574 

Gardeners 21,323 

Grocers 40,070 

Harness-makers . . . 12,728 

Hatters 11,647 

Innkeepers . . . . 22,818 

Jewellers 10,175 

Laborers 969,301 

Laundresses .... 38,633 

Lumbermen .... 15,929 

Lawyers and Judges . 33,980 

Mantua-makers . . . 35,165 

Masons 48,925 

Merchants 123,378 

Millers 37,281 



340 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 



Seamstresses . . . . 90,198 

Servants 559,908 

Shoemakers .... 164,608 

Students . . . . . 49,993 

Stonecutters .... 19,825 

Tailors and Tailoresses . 101,868 

Tanners 10,491 

Teachers 110,469 

Teamsters 34,824 

Tinsmiths 17,412 

Tobacconists .... 21,413 

Wheelwrights .... 32,693 



Milliners 25,722 

Miners 147,750 

Overseers 37,883 

Peddlers 16,594 

Painters and Varnishers . 51,695 

Plasterers 13,116 

Printers 23,106 

Public Officers . . . 24,693 

Physicians & Surgeons . 55,055 

Railroad Men .... 36,567 

Saddlers 12,756 

Sawyers 15,000 

It thus appears that more than one-half of the whole 
are employed in agricultural pursuits, while nearly all are 
engaged in some useful business. 'Only 12,236 bar-keepers 
and 21,413 tobacconists, included in the above tables, are 
engaged in labor that is harmful to society. This small num- 
ber, compared with the grand army of productive industry 
and professional honor, affords the highest encouragement 
to the future of our country. If it follows that the time 
given to the cultivation of mind and the fine arts must be 
less, and the standard of intelligence, on the whole, propor- 
tionally lower, it maybe justly claimed that practical knowl- 
edge is more general, and society more healthy. 

The attempts at aristocratic distinctions in the Southern 
portion of the United States, and the release of large num- 
bers from the pursuits of industry, have not proved favorable 
to the cultivation of sound learning ; while the popular sen- 
timent rendering the labor of the hands dishonorable has 
produced results sufficiently disastrous to serve as a warning 
against all endeavors to establish here a form of society so 
entirely anti-American. 

A much graver question relates to the moral character of 
our population. Of course, the various nationalities brought 
together here must include every variety of opinions, habits, 
and condition. The grades of civilization from many por- 
tions of Europe extend downward even below the semi- 
barbarous state. Crimes of the grosser kind must become 



DEVELOPMENT OF POPULATION. 341 

correspondingly frequent. Lust and revenge are rank, and 
possibly ferocious in many instances. Offences against per- 
son and property will render both insecure in proportion 
as these barbarous elements prevail. Crowded cities, afford- 
ing most victims and most convenient concealment, will 
include larg-e and danp;erous numbers of thieves and mur- 
derers; and the false ideas of liberty which pervade the 
lower forms of society in Europe will encourage the emi- 
gration of multitudes of their vilest men and women. Now, 
if it be a vice, it is one not easily remedied, apparently, — 
that these human beings, who are yet hardly human, may 
suddenly become American citizens ; and, though without a 
single qualification for the high and sacred responsibilities of 
freemen, they are as potential at the ballot-box as an equal 
number of our most intellig-ent and Christian citizens. 

The relio-ious creeds and institutions of laro-e numbers 

o o 

who come to us claim the first and highest obedience for a 
foreign ecclesiastical prince, and make loyalty a mere matter 
of temporary convenience, liable to be disturbed and over- 
thrown by causes wholly concealed from the ordinary 
observation of the American people. 

Candor also compels the acknowledgment, that no small 
number of vicious people in this country are born here, and 
that the antagonisms to virtue are, to a shameful extent, 
of native origin and growth ; while the highest virtues, both 
of Church and State, are alike of foreign and of domestic 
origin; the whole resulting in the stern fact, that, in our 
mixed population, the extremes of virtue and vice confront 
each other, and all the grades of human character that can 
be found in any civilized country are here strongly marked 
and vigorously developed. 

To complete this brief analysis of American population, it 
is imperative to bring prominently forward the fact, that a 
high sense of religious responsibility brought the founders 
of our free institutions here. As the riu;hts of conscience 
were extensively denied in the Old World, and fully con- 



342 THE GEE AT REPUBLIC. 

ceded in the New, yearnings fop the privilege of free worship 
brought multitudes to the wilds of America who would have 
been otherwise more comfortable in the land of their bhih. 
Providence thus secured numerous accessions to the Chris- 
tian population of the Republic ; and, from the first, moral 
and religious influences largely predominated in the several 
colonies. The full development of this organic force will be 
noticed in another chapter. Here the claim, manifestly true, 
is, that the broad liberty which the earlier citizens of the 
Republic brought with them, and passed through the death- 
struggles of the Revolution to establish, was vitally Christian ; 
and that only the growing power of this controlling element 
can explain the high moral status of American citizens, on 
the whole. 

THE AMERICAN RACE. 

By the large comprehensions and mysterious selections of 
living materials for the formation of this new nation, Provi- 
dence has clearly indicated a purpose to produce a popula- 
tion differing from any before known. In other countries, 
peoples utterly strange to each other, and diverse in origin, 
language, and religion, are brought into juxtaposition: but, 
from the nature of aristocratic governments, they are only 
subjects; they never do, never can, become an organic 
imit. In the United States, it is quite otherwise. Here 
men must cease to be Anglo-Saxon, Teutonic, Sclavonic, or 
Celt, and, by the very force of our free institutions, become 
Americans, — simply and only Americans, — at once sover- 
eign and subject. Hence in a period longer or shorter, 
according to circumstances which are neither fundamental 
nor permanent, republican ideas take possession of incoming 
peoples, gradually, but at length entirely, mastering and dis- 
placing all predilections in favor of despotic or even mild 
monarchical institutions; and the most profound religious 
prejudices slowly, and almost imperceptibly, yield to the 
grand idea of free toleration, and the paramount rights of 



DEVELOPMENT OF POPULATION. 343 

conscience ; so that Romish bigotry is modified to an extent 
alarming to the hierarchy, sworn to implicit obedience to 
the sovereign pontiff! In opinions, religious and political, 
the people will differ ; but, in the sense and rights of per- 
sonal responsibility, they tend rapidly to unity. Immense 
as is the influx of population, we affirm the deliberate con- 
viction, that the process of homogeneous Americanization 
follows it so closely as to avert the most imminent perils to 
our free institutions, and furnish strong ground for the 
belief that God himself controls the mixing-up of nations 
here, for the grand purpose of making one, immensely 
stronger and nobler than either of them could possibly be. 

Conventional arrangements of foreign origin which relate 
to exclusive education, religion, and government, are very 
tenacious, and not unfrequently rise to menacing propor- 
tions, as antagonists to the system of free schools, free 
churches, and a free Republic; but while the history of the 
contest furnishes ample reasons for eternal vigilance, and 
firm, manly independence, it does in no way indicate the 
ultimate triumph of European despotism on this continent, 
or the fundamental perversion of our great providential 
scheme of self-government. 

Free schools, tending to universal education, bear with 
them their own vindication, make their own proselytes, and 
produce the intelligence which must render them superior 
to the assaults of ignorance and bigotry ; and even coerced 
sectarian education with an anti-republican animus, by the 
mere force of contiguous free thinking and free acting, and 
the permeating vital forces of a free government, imper- 
ceptibly assimilates the common faith of Christian liberty. 

It, moreover, appertains to unrestricted truth to show its 
sujoeriority to prescriptive error. An open field and a fair 
fi";ht is all it demands, all it will allow. The wrono; has no 
chance of ultimate triumph in such a contest. God will not 
permit it. The inherent weakness of bigotry and injustice 
becomes evident in such a country as this. When they rise 



344 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

up and bluster and threaten, before alarmists have ceased to 
utter their warnings of impending destruction to freedom 
and the right, they have gone down under the heavy blows 
which men, women, and children are so free to wield against 
them here. 

The press, untrammelled, arrays itself on one side and the 
other in this Titanic war ; but how evidently and rapidly, if 
it be vile, does its vileness destroy its power to rule against 
the educated. Christianized freedom of the land ! and how 
soon must it tell the tale of its disgrace by extinction, or 
falling back upon the patronage of the openly vicious ! On 
the other hand, when was it ever known that a free, truth- 
ful, fearless. Christianized press finally lost caste in America 
by standing up boldly for private and public virtue, and 
advocating the true republican rights of man ? It may have 
passed through fiery trials, and fallen, for a time, under the 
ban of infidel vice and party corruption ; but short indeed 
must be the life that has not been long enough to see 
schools of infidelity, and parties becoming corrupt from pros- 
perity or vile leadership, disappear before the triumphant 
power of an enlightened public opinion, led on by a free 
press and an unfettered church. Thus forming, moulding, 
assimilating all to itself, the Great Republic of America goes 
on with the process of constructing a race of its own, 
strangely and even miraculously adjusted to its providen- 
tial purposes, and the accomjDlishment of its grand mission 
among the governments of the earth. 

If, now, it be asked how has all this become possible, and 
what is the vitalizing force which is thus transforming peo- 
ples of various and antagonistic governments into one, we 
affirm, without hesitancy, it is the Sovereign of nations, 
God Omnipotent, who "maketh the wrath of man to praise 
him," unfolding the plans of the Christian dispensation, 
purging the people by the fires of law and of justice ; it is 
the gospel, the potent, at length the nearly omni-potent, 
spread of truth from heaven ; a free, open Bible ; the bap- 



DEVELOPMENT OF POPULATION. 345 

tisms of light and love, which are fast converting our nine- 
teenth century into one grand Pentecost. It is the voice 
of resurrection, saying, " Arise, shine ; for thy light is come, 
and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." 

The unity of the American race includes also the mingling 
of blood, which, subject to the control of true instincts and 
80und conventional propriety, obeys the physiological laws 
of animal regeneration and strength, and must gradually 
bring out proportions and powers fitted for great achieve- 
ments, — a phj^sique which shall rise to possibilities, only 
indicated by the endurance and stalwart might of our armies 
in all the wars through which we have yet passed. 

Our varied climates, invigorating air, and inevitable ac- 
tivity, have contributed to this result. In subduing the for- 
ests, cultivating our vast prairies, and developing the mechan- 
ical industry and commerce of the country, our people have 
added much to the size of bone and strength of muscle, the 
power of nerve and energy of will, which tend to give the 
true American unpandleled powers of endurance and triumph 
in any field of conflict which God may require him to enter. 

No doubt, disobedience to the laws of health, and deep- 
seated immoralities, have often antagonized and defeated this 
great providential plan of forming a mighty race of men 
for achievements above the reach of dwarfed and enfeebled 
humanity. It is the mission of true Christian education to 
counteract these depraved tendencies; the grand purpose 
of a true inward and outward regeneration, and a progres- 
sive scientific system of moral and phj'sical health, to rescue 
our new and vigorous race from these destructive agencies, 
and test the rights of purified, elevated humanity to long 
life and great deeds in a sphere as much above that which 
we have yet reached, as our present is above that of the 
wastino' savao;es of these continental forests. 

Then the magnificent scenery of our mountains and rivers 
and lakes, the vastness of our country, and the ever-increas- 

44 



346 THE GREAT IlEPUBLIC. 

ing demands upon our utmost powers, will come in to help 
God and conscience make us great. 

Freedom relieved from the taint of slavery, and the sove- 
reign rights of freemen exercised by Americans, without 
the restrictions of caste, will give dignity and power to the 
true American ; while the far-famed ingenuity, industry, ver- 
satility, and energy of the Republic will render her exhaust- 
less resources available. 

With these advantages, under the prestige of a mighty 
past, and with these healthy, vitalizing forces working against 
our vices, thirty-four millions six hundred and live thousand 
eight hundred and eighty-two American people are now, 
under the control of Providence, moving onward in the 
front ranks of modern Christian civilization. 



CHAPTER II. 
DEVELOPMENT OF LIBERTY. 

" Freedom of a low and limited order is mere caprice. Freedom does not exist as 
original and natural. Rather must it be first sought out and won, and that by an in- 
calculable medial discipline of the intellectual and moral powers. Freedom is spirit in its 
completeness. Society and the State are the very conditions in which freedom is realized. 
Reason is the comprehension of the divine work. The strength of a nation lies in the 
reason incorporated in it. The conception of God constitutes the general basis of a 
people's character." — Hegel. 

The earliest struggles of liberty are indications of torture 
under the wrongs of oppression. Men in pain seek relief; 
and the right to relief from the miseries inflicted by des- 
potism is an instinct which moves the sufferer to act in 
self-defence, without waiting for a logical vindication : hence 
the violence which struggles with power, withont regard to 
the question whether there is any hope or possibility of 
relief, but which must sometimes be followed by a conviction 
of impotence, and a feeling of sullen despair, and finally of 
unavoidable submission. 

But God does not permit this submission to pass into sat- 
isfaction. He rouses up the soul to a consciousness of its 
individuality, of its own dignity, of its felt claims to freedom. 
He stirs up the reason ; and a higher sense of justice takes 
position, and begins to question the rights of despotic rulers, 
and to demand release from exactions which are unjust and 
oppressive. When these demands are resisted and denied, 
then comes the question of power. If the reason is low, 
and its arguments are unreliable, the attempts at self-vindi- 
cation are likely to be premature and reckless. In the 
higher exercise of reason, two questions are considered, — 

347 



348 THE GREAT KEPUBLIC. 

can the wrong be conquered by force ? and are not moral 
means, without force, due under the circumstances, and 
hopeful of success? 

The founders of the Great Republic had passed through 
all these stages, — first in England, then in America. They 
had shown the higher manifestations of reason in the per- 
sistent struggles of logic before resistance in battle. They 
had passed through the conflicts of the Revolution, and found 
themselves free, in the sense of release from foreign domi- 
nation. They had, moreover, settled the form of govern- 
ment, determined that it should not be monarchical, but 
repubhcan ; that it should not be irresponsible, but consti- 
tutional ; that it should be democratic, but representative ; 
that the paramount allegiance of the citizen should be to 
the General Government, and all State authority should 
adjust itself to the good of the nation. This was the evi- 
dent purpose ; and it was undeniably in the scope and in- 
tention of the Constitution which superseded the old Arti- 
cles of Confederation. But it was not universally acknowl- 
edged. It was contested by the States-right party, through 
a period of nearly a hundred years, with great ability and 
zeal ; and the opposition to a true nationality finally led to 
treason and blood. The question was left to the arbitrament 
of the sword ; and the vindication of national over State 
sovereignty followed one of the most gigantic and cruel 
wars of modern times. 

This, however, was the growth of liberty. The freedom 
of the individual seemed, at first, all that could be expected, 
and almost too much to ask. Deliverance from persecution 
on account of religious belief and practice, from unjust and 
tyrannical executions, seemed the greatest bleasing that could 
be conferred. When, however, the struggle rose to a com- 
plete emancipation from foreign power, and American inde- 
pendence had been proclaimed, vindicated, and acknowl- 
edged, large ideas of personal rights were the natural result ; 
and the growth of national feeling and intelligence was at 



DEVELOPMENT OF LIBERTY. 349 

first slow, revealing only gradually its organic existence 
and power. When, however, it rose distinctly to sight, it 
was found to be the true American idea ; and the feelino- 
that the national character and rights of the people must 
outgrow, or conquer by force, all local and State assumptions 
inconsistent with it, at length became strong and irresistible. 

PERSONAL LIBERTY. 

It was not easy to ascertain precisely what the colonists 
had gained. Liberty was the word instinctively used to 
express it ; but the people, generally, were fir from a clear 
apprehension of the meaning of the term. The great 
statesmen of the Revolution excluded from the idea many 
of the radical and irresponsible notions of the masses, but 
differed widely as to what it did actually include. Indeed, 
broad and comprehensive views of liberty cannot be claimed 
for the times in which our republican institutions had their 
birth. From the very necessities of historical civilization, 
these must be an outgrowth from the radical principles, 
obtaining position amid tfie life-and-death struggles of a 
great revolution. 

Reflection is subsequent to passion or sentiment ; and, 
when it commences its examinations, it condemns and 
excludes much which feeling asserts and demands. Con- 
sciousness finds free volitions within. The mind, from the 
mere love of power, exercises itself in willing; takes excur- 
sions in various directions to show to itself that it can deter- 
mine one way and another, — that it can resolve exact 
opposites. It receives and repels influences from without ; 
weighs motives, i.nd first accepts, then rejects them ; even 
choosing to be governed, apparently, for the mere independ- 
ence of the thing, by those which are felt and acknowledged 
to be by far the less in strength and claims. 

This is primary liberty, the starting-point of all free action 
and free institutions; and, in the perverseness of human 



350 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

nature, it is very likely to assert boldly, and even defiantly, 
the rio;lit to do wrong;. To realize the full force of the im- 
portant distinction between the ability to do wrong and the 
liberty to do wrong requires thought, moral culture, and, 
finally, regeneration. It is the province of discipline, under 
divine inspiration and guidance, to bring out the conscience 
of liberty. Then, when the soul proposes to itself free 
action, finds itself acting freely, it begins to ask, " Is this 
right?" Then it begins to realize that there are limitations 
to freedom ; in other words, that there are great laws of free 
action grounded in our relations to other men and to God. 

JUSTICE AND LOYALTY IN LIBERTY. 

Justice is an element so broad and far-reaching, that it is 
not easily nor soon understood. It defines itself in laws for 
self-protection ; and this involves the protection and rights 
of others, and finally rises to the dignity of constitutional 
law, assuming to have found the fundamental and perma- 
nent right as between man and man. 

But both the idea and the expression of justice must, 
of necessity, be imperfect and inadequate in the earlier 
attempts to define constitutional rights. Constitutions, 
therefore, as we have before said, are not made, but grow ; 
and pure justice, as it is the rarest and most precious ele- 
ment of fundamental government, so it is the least likely 
and the latest to have full sway in the systems of fallen and 
depraved humanity. This must be the true explanation of 
the unquestionable but humiliating fact, that the struggles 
of a hundred years in this republic of liberty have been 
over the question. How much, or rather how little, justice 
can we dispense to man as man, and establish a govern- 
ment of freedom for ourselves ? Slowly, therefore, has true 
liberty developed itself even here ; sometimes seeming to 
diminish rather than enlarge, to retrograde rather than 
advance. But we can now see, that, upon the whole, the 



DEVELOPMENT OF LIBERTY. 351 

progress has been powerful and really grand. Now it is 
known and almost universally felt among the governing 
minds of America, that justice, fliir, full, impartial justice, 
is indispensable to liberty, is the very soul of liberty. 

Almost as slowly has the great fact come to the surface, 
that true loyalty is a fundamental element of liberty ; that 
we must be governed to be free. Wild, ultra democracy 
denies this; licentious passion denies it: but calm reason 
affirms it, history asserts it, revelation demands it. 

A republican government must be outwardly and formally 
a government by majorities; and, when the free elections of 
the people'have placed a man in office, he is and must be 
the officer until he is superseded according to due forms 
of law. If it is alleged that he is unjust, and that he has 
transcended or made a vicious and oppressive use of his 
power, the appeal is not to private judgment, not to public 
passion, but to the umpire provided by the Constitution. 
Obedience, one of the hardest things for a republican to 
learn, is one of the first and most imperative obligations of 
freemen in a free government. Rejected, superseded by 
individual obstinacy or confederate passion, lawless anarchy 
and headlong rebellion must be the result. 

We say that a republic must be ostensibly governed by 
majorities ; but in reality it is far otherwise. Sad experience 
shows us that by low intrigue a small number of political 
demagogues may dictate candidates and control elections ; 
and that, were there no counteracting forces, the govern- 
ment would be irredeemably lost amid contending factions, 
or the people in their millions subjected to the merciless 
tyranny of a contemptible minority or a military despotism. 

EDUCATION AND RELIGION IN LIBERTY. 

Intelligence, sound and widely diff'used, is not a mere con- 
tingency or accidental fact of free institutions such as ours : 
it is a part of them. Liberty, in its highest, truest sense, 



352 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

cannot be known apart from it. There is not only the 
primary fact that the people are the government, that they 
must therefore be sufficiently educated to understand the 
simple but mutual principles of the government, and the 
true sphere and responsibilities of the elective franchise, 
but they must be qualified to grapple with and triumph 
over the astute scheming of corrupt leaders ; at least they 
must reveal ability to hurl these men occasionally from 
power, so as to compel them, by their fears, to a degree of 
caution which will secure the liberties of the people. 

But mere secular learning leaves selfishness undisturbed, 
or rather stimulates its growth, and multiplies its expedients 
for mischief The tendency of mental increase in corrup- 
tion is to make men rivals in intrigue, not antagonists to 
political vice : hence the multiplication of demagogues by 
schools of " philosophy, falsely so called," has come to be a 
well-known and generally-recognized fact. 

There must, therefore, be a special element- in the intel- 
ligence of freemen; a distinct controlling animus which 
will make it broad and true and safe ; a spirit of patriotism 
which subordinates and finally destroys the natural selfish- 
ness ; which raises patriotism to the dignity of philanthropy, 
and enthrones justice over the passions and the will, in the 
heart, in the family, and in the nation. This is loyalty to 
God, a principle and a feeling given in the new birth, which, 
" sufficiently produced," exalts the human to the sphere of 
the divine, and resolves the government of liberty into the 
will of God. 

In our present mixed state as to individual and public 
regeneration, only a slight approximation to this sublime 
standard is possible. Happy for us that enough of this 
" good and perfect gift from the Father of lights," this " wis- 
dom that is from above, which is first pure, then peaceable, 
gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, 
without partiality and without hypocrisy," has been given 
to man to show its existence, reveal its power, and secure 



DEVELOPMENT OF LIBERTY. 353 

our liberties; while the "earthly, sensual, and devilish" are 
sufficiently evident to inspire our hatred and dread, and 
move the people to more general and earnest heart-yearn- 
ings after the spirit of Christ for the soul of the nation. 
How we long for the day when we can claim for the Ameri- 
can Republic, without mortifying reservations, a well-defined 
place within the circle of the divine beatitudes! — "Happy 
is that people that is in such a case ; yea, happy is that 
people whose God is the Lord." 

Here we reach a position from which we can announce 
the fact, that government by a republic may be perfectly 
safe in the hands of the majority, or under the control of 
the whole people, swayed by the power of a small minority. 
It is useless for the American people longer to shut their 
eyes to the inevitable fact, that governing mind is a crea- 
tion of God ; that the power and the will to govern are 
inborn where there is a providential designation to the 
functions and responsibilities of office. Setting aside, as 
we have done, the vain pretenders whose dishonest usur- 
pations of power are an offence to God and man, we have 
risen to a contemplation of humanity re-formed for the high 
prerogative of representing God in the government of men ; 
and even now we see that the general intelligence is too 
broad and clear-sighted to be long misled or misgoverned, 
and too largely imbued with common sense to refuse to be 
represented or led by men of superior wisdom and goodness. 

EXTENT AND SPHERE OF LIBERTY. 

In consequence of the natural blindness of souls, it has 
come to be a very urgent question. How far shall liberty 
extend? — who shall be free? It is mortifying that this 
could ever be a question in the Great Republic. It must 
be acknowledged that we did for a long time ask, " May 
a man of heterodox faith be free ? " But we outs-rew our 
Prelatical bigotry in Virginia and our Puritanic bigotry in 

45 



354 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

New England, and found, to our abundant relief, that it was 
perfectly safe to hand over Anabaptists and State Church- 
men, Papists, Jews, and Quakers, to the mercy of God and 
free inquiry. 

We did ask, " May the tawny Indian and the swarthy 
African be free ? Must not liberty be restricted to the 
white race, and denied to darker color ? " Heaven pity us ! 
How Ions; we strugri>:led to find out what tinore of color should 
mark the impassable boundary between liberty and bondage ! 
and how grandly, at length, have we risen to know that a 
man is to be free because he is a man ! Let us boast as lit- 
tle as possible over the fict that a part of us have reached 
this great plain truth only in the last period of the nine- 
teenth century of the Christian era. 

But the reasons are now sufficiently evident why liberty, 
even in our favored country, has been so slow of growth. 
Including, as it does, our own reflective consciousness of 
personal freedom, a rectified conscience, a clear sense of 
justice, a devoted loyalty, a broad intelligence, a sincere 
piety for the people generally, and the public and govern- 
mental recognition of the universal manhood of man, we may 
not expect the spontaneous growth of liberty, nor its rapid 
development. The more reason have we, therefore, to be 
profoundly grateful for the certain historical evidence of its 
sure and steady advance to strength and dominant power on 
this continent. 



CHAPTER III. 
DEVELOPMENT OF GOVERNMENT. 

" Hitherto the world has assumed some inherent antagonism between freedom and 
centralization. A true democracy has as last established itself, that not only develops 
an intcnser centralization than despotism ever boasted, but that develops and also vin- 
dicates it by a completer freedom than ever before could be permitted." — Partridge. 

It cannot be said that society in America was ever resolved 
into its original elements. The first successful emigrants 
came here with no feeling of reckless anarchy, no idea of 
release from the restraints of law. If there w^ere some 
vicious and irresponsible men among them, who fled from 
needed control or merited punishment at home, they were 
never strong enough to overwhelm the stern representatives 
of order placed by Providence at the head of affairs. Gov- 
ernment in some form was clearly recognized in the organi- 
zations of companies, in grants and charters at home ; and 
the power of control, however falsely conceived or unwisely 
located, was, from the first, evident and vigorous. This was 
so far civilization, in distinction from barbarism. 

A POPULAR GOVERNMENT. 

Government by the people came to this land in " The May- 
flower," and began at once a career of development which 
has never been successfully resisted. The idea of govern- 
ment by an oligarchy came to the South earlier. It asserted 
hereditnry rights, and gathered to itself the power of king 
and council, nobles and proprietaries, the church and the 
sword. It antagonized and suppressed the will of the peo- 



356 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

pie ; and the people, in their turn, stood up against it calmly, 
but firml}^, and wrenched from it one concession after anoth- 
er, until, by the struggles of a hundred and fifty years, they 
overthrew and utterly destroyed it. 

In the mean time, the people were the government in fact, 
and of right. It is interesting to observe that the preten- 
sions of oligarchy in America have always been subject to 
the will of the people, sometimes shrinking from sight to 
avoid a storm and the wreck of property interests, and some- 
times, with an ill grace, yielding to the claims of constitutional 
law. When, however, it exerted ostensible power, it was 
obliged first to seduce the people from their allegiance to 
God and the right, prostitute them to its own level of 
demoralization and injustice, and thus make them the fit 
instruments of usurpation and oppression. 

But the inchoate United States were never without gov- 
ernment by the people. While their legal relations to the 
crown of Great Britain were loyally acknowledged, they 
arranged promptly and everywhere to supply the defects of 
the home government by the quiet organization of their own 
power. It may be naturally supposed that those earlier forms 
of democratic government were very crude and imperfect; 
but whoever studies them carefully will perceive that they 
contained nearly all the great principles of justice and the 
most profound elements of constitutional law. 

The parent government of the Great Republic was a pure 
democracy, — a government by all the people. They were 
few in number, and their acts of legislation were the voice 
of the whole. Their great concern was liberty. Oppression 
had taught them so thoroughly, and the steady light of 
Christianity revealed to them so clearly, the way to obtain 
it, that they were resolved from the first that they would 
keep in their own hands whatever authority they could 
wrest from the grasp of the king. It may be regarded as 
strange that they did not bring with them a love of monar- 
chy so strong that it would be their first and only thought, 



I 



DEVELOPMENT OF GOVERNMENT. 357 

as the power of the king of England so far declined as to 
suggest the possibility, and at length the necessity, of Amer- 
ican independence. But it was exactly and sternly other- 
wise. The entire period of preparation was, as we have 
seen, pervaded by the idea of a democracy. The public acts 
of the people all indicated the conviction that they were 
their own rulers ; that no man was ever born to be kino; 
over them. So clear and general and lasting was this im- 
pression, that we must refer it to the providence of God. 

It availed nothing with the statesmen of these early times 
to suggest that all attempts at republican government had 
been utter failures ; that the people were too ignorant and 
selfish to establish a firm and enlightened government. 
Something within them said, "We are free, and no man or 
number of men shall wrest our liberties from us : others 
could not, but we can govern ourselves. Paganism could 
form no bond of union strong enough to hold the republics 
of Greece and Rome together ; but Christianity can do for us 
what no other system of religion ever did, ever could do, 
for any people. God will help us, and we can be free." 
They had heard a solemn voice pronounce the potent word, 
'^^Ejjlirata!" and their eyes were open. They could see that 
a new dispensation of government was dawning upon the 
race ; that they were the vanguard of liberty in a new 
world : and with the vision came a feeling of power that 
was too mighty for the despotism of the old and dying past. 
This was God, slowly bringing to the inhabitants of earth 
the knowledge of the fact that he is the Sovereign of na- 
tions ; that the regeneration originates a new and all-per- 
vading sense of justice ; and this alone realized the idea 
and the fact of equality among men, and complete subordi- 
nation to the will of God. Here it was to be demonstrated 
that " He whose right it is to reign would reign until he had 
put all enemies under his feet." The doctrine of liberty 
and of equal rights is wrapped up in this announcement; 
is utterly and forever inseparable from it. 



358 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

But this, with every other great truth, was militant in 
America. It must fight for its place among the philosophies 
and politics of its times ; and so it did through the genera- 
tions, achieving its progressive and final triumphs amid the 
sweat and grime, the tears and blood, of battling ages. But 
its triumph is at length complete. The people, the whole 
people, are the acknowledged rulers of the Great Republic. 

A REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT. 

It soon became, of course, impossible for the people to 
assemble en masse for purposes of legislation and adminis- 
trative law ; and they were sufiiciently sensible to adopt a 
system of representation. The great legal maxim, " What 
a man does by another he does himself," was well under- 
stood : and hence the great " town-meetings," which were 
available for local purposes, became convenient for the 
earliest use of the elective franchise ; and the orderly use 
of the ballot cliose men to whom matters of general interest 
to neifjfhborhoods could be submitted. 

These contiguous colonies had interests in common ; and 
they could not meet as a whole for the settlement of colonial 
policy, but they could meet by their representatives. Hence 
conventions and commissions of various kinds began to 
struggle with this immense problem of unity, and com- 
menced the search, through mists and darkness profound, 
for those subtle principles and spheres of prerogatives 
which belonged to the whole, and to separate them from 
duties and powers which were local in their rights and 
necessities. 

This was not only convenient on account of numbers, but 
it was indispensable for the security of wisdom. These grave 
deliberations upon matters vital to the commonwealth could 
thus be intrusted to men of calmer, broader, riper thought 
than can be expected from the great whole of any com- 
munity. And such men were here. Men of long and pro- 



DEVELOPMENT OF GOVERNMENT. 359 

found experience in problems of State came with the earliest 
settlers ; and it is of intense interest now to mark the shrink- 
ing diffidence with which these great men accepted positions 
of trust actually thrust upon them by the will and necessities 
of the people. 

We must, however, concede that the true idea of repre- 
sentation has been slow in reaching its exact definitions and 
place in this Republic. It was a grand propriety that 
assumed from the first that a Christian man was, all other 
things being equal, far the most eligible for official rank ; 
that true religion would qualify a man for the better, safer 
exercise of the elective franchise : but it was a narrow judg- 
ment that disfranchised all others, and a still narrower 
opinion that excluded from the right of the ballot all Chris- 
tians, however pure, unless they were members of a particular 
church. Property qualifications were more naturally sug- 
gested, but they were not consistent with republican equali- 
ty of rights; nor could it ever be made to appear that either 
wisdom or patriotism dwelt alone in the purse. Still more 
absurd was the notion, that the right of the vote depended 
upon the color of the skin ; as though honesty and fidelity, 
social wants and available intelligence, were of the com- 
plexion rather than of the soul. And the extreme of all 
absurdity and injustice was the idea that disfranchised slaves 
should become the basis of free representation, and that the 
same arbitrary minds which should rob the black man of his 
inborn rights should confer these rights upon themselves. 

From all these ideas, foreign to the doctrine of liberty, it 
has been necessary to free the people. It may seem strange 
to us that they could ever obtain rank and influence, in any 
part of our country, with those who seemed predestined by 
Providence as the pioneers of representative liberty. But 
we must again come to the remembrance of the great fact, 
so frequently recurring in these discussions, that every great 
principle must have its conflicts ; that this is the trial state 
for all political virtue : and then the slow development of 



360 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

the great law of universal right, in a government of repre- 
sentation from the governed, will become intelligible, how- 
ever impatient may have been our waiting. 

With our rapidly-increasing millions of population and 
wealth, representation has not only become clearer in truth 
and broader in spirit, but more extended in reach and irre- 
sistible in effect. In our municipal and civil bodies, our legis- 
lative, judicial, and executive departments of the states and 
the nation, representation receives its contents, significance, 
and responsibilities from the personal rights and conse- 
quence of thirty-four millions of freemen, and all their vast 
interests of education, religion, and commerce. Our consuls 
in every pOrt, and our ministers plenipotentiary abroad, rep- 
resent the moral power of living, growing millions, rapidly 
accumulating wealth, pure, free Christianity, inviolable unity, 
unparalleled energy, and an invincible army and navy. In 
this vital potency, the government of the Great Republic is 
everywhere. It reaches to the ends of the earth, to protect 
its citizens, and seize its criminals. Well may its represen- 
tatives feel that their country confers on them high honor, 
and that, in their humblest mission, they are rendered truly 
great. Well may the American citizen mention his nation 
anywhere with feelings of honorable satisfaction and sus- 
tained confidence. 

A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. 

A careful study of the growth of American history will re- 
veal the curious but important fact, that Providence rendered 
necessary all the essential measures for organizing liberty. 
Left to themselves, the people would have been quite satis- 
fied with government by towns or neighborhoods, or, at 
most, of single colonies. But God permitted danger to be- 
come one of the first of all the combining forces. They soon 
found it unsafe to exist in fragmentary communities. The 
savages were too hostile and powerful. They must combine ; 



DEVELOPMENT OF GOVERNMENT. 3(31 

and, to do this, they must find those subtle, common interests 
and rights which constitute the hirger unities. 

There were, moreover, questions of boundary and juris- 
diction, not between themselves merely, but between the ho- 
mogeneous English colonists and the French from the North 
and North-west, the Dutch from the Hudson, and the Span- 
iards from the South and South-west. Encroachments from 
all directions demanded defence, — first by diplomacy, and 
then, as they thought, by the sword. Defence required con- 
federacy ; and, however obstinate and threatening internal 
rivalry and collision, the pressure of invasion from with- 
out was allowed to increase until union was an absolute ne- 
cessity, and sectional jealousies were held in abeyance by 
extreme peril from menacing or actual hostile invasions. 
The English colonies, therefore, went into the great French 
and Indian wars a unit, which was the foreshadowing 
and the actual beginning of the great union which made 
them a nation. 

The common danger from the tyranny of the home gov- 
ernment, as we have before seen, tended strongly to the 
same result. If, when one class of dangers subsided, the 
colonies showed again the internal repulsions that threat- 
ened to break the tender ties which began to bind them 
together, and destroy the divine plans of organic, vital 
union, then God allowed the prompt development of new 
dangers to absorb colonial interest ; and immediately these 
tender, fretted ties began to grow again. And thus it has 
been as generations have come and gone. Our unity has 
been fostered by our perils from the rivalry and hostility of 
other nations. 

But the larger, broader unity, which indicated national 
power, appeared and disappeared alternately during the pe- 
riod of preparation. In the mean time, narrower local 
boundaries, on the basis of colonial neighborhood, began to 
reveal themselves more and more distinctly ; and, at the 
declaration of independence, thirteen distinct Common- 

46 



362 THE GEEAT REPUBLIC. 

wealths, or States, appeared with the forms of local, inde- 
pendent governments well defined, all for reasons of de- 
fence against enemies who interfered in various ways with 
the providential purposes of a free government. Hence 
arose our grand civil and political system, — State con- 
stitutions. State legislatures, judicial and legislative func- 
tions, with their high incumbents, all occupying their seats 
of power by the free election, and during the will, of the 
people. To these original thirteen were added from time to 
time the free civil organizations of new States, North and 
West, South and South-west, until thirty-seven States are 
now orgariic and vital, with well-defined republican forms of 
government. This great result, we have seen, has arisen from 
the ideas of defence which first brought contiguous colonies 
into close confederation; which made the protection of their 
own firesides and property, their harbors and liberties, first 
in importance and in order of time. The convictions which 
gave paramount consideration to common dangers and des- 
tiny arose subsequently, leaving the organizations which 
were first for local protection free in the period of develop- 
ment, to devote themselves to the advancement of produc- 
tive industries, education, and commerce. With respect to 
the Great Republic, they simply form component parts of 
an organic whole, and provide wisely for all the advantages 
of a division of labor. 

One of the evidences of divine control in the organization 
of this government is in the fact that actual unity existed 
before it was known to the people. God, who had called 
these separate colonies to this virgin land, arranged the 
elements of a grand Union, far in advance of the concep- 
tions of man. Common blood, common sufferings, common 
dangers, and a common destiny, gradually brought to the 
nation of colonists the great good sense of harmony, and 
ultimately the unsuspected fact that they were one nation. 
God had predetermined this result; and he would super- 
intend all the jealous rivalries, the bitter sectional animosi- 



DEVELOPMENT OF GOVERNMENT. 363 

« 

ties, which were in the way of its realization. He would 
clear up the vision of the people, and slowly unfold to their 
view the plan of a great organic national life. 

On the morning of the 5th of September, 1774, the 
first Continental Congress assembled in Carpenter's Hall, 
Philadelphia. There were forty-four and soon fifty-two 
delegates from all " the old thirteen " except Georgia. Here 
were many of the great founders of our free institutions, 
and they argued with the skill of experienced statesmen. 
Richard Henry Lee said, '"' Our rights are built on a fourfold 
foundation, — on Nature, on the British Constitution, on char- 
ters, and on immemorial usages. The Navigation Act is a cap- 
ital violation of them all." "There is no alleg-iance without 
protection," said John Jay ; " and emigrants have a right to 
erect what government they please. I have always with- 
held my assent from the position, that every man discover- 
ing land does it for the State to which he belongs." Roger 
Sherman declared, " The colonies are not bound to the king 
or crown by the act of settlement, but by their consent to 
it. There is no other legislature over them but their 
respective assemblies. They adopt the common law, not 
as the common law, but as the highest reason." " But Rut- 
ledge thought that the British Constitution gave them a 
sufficient foundation; and Duane, that the law of Nature 
would be a feeble support." * 

After a severe struggle, it was resolved to vote by colo- 
nies; and thus the equal rights of the future small States 
were conceded. A plan of compromise was introduced by 
Galloway, proposing a union between Great Britain and the 
colonies, " so ingeniously defended, that even the clear- 
headed Jay was led to adopt it." This gave it influence, 
and it only failed by one vote. This was another of our 
providential escapes, not the last time that God interfered 
to save the American people from the danger of compro- 
mises when a great principle was involved. 

* Greene, pp. 84, 85. 



364 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

From this Congress went out a "bill of rights," an 
address to the king, another to the people of Great Britain, 
one to the British Provinces, and one to the Province of 
Quebec. " When your lordships," said Lord Chatham, " look 
at the ptipers transmitted to us from America, when you 
consider their decency, firmness, and wisdom, you cannot 
but respect the cause, and wish to make it your own." The 
memory of Lord Chatham is dear to the heart of every 
American. " Non-importation, non-exportation, non-con- 
sumption " of British goods were the high-souled resolves 
which went out from this Congress. " Negotiation, suspen- 
sion of commerce, and war," said Jay, " are the only three 
things. War is, by general consent, to be waived at present. 
I am for negotiation, and suspension of commerce." 

The most important effect of these grave deliberations 
had been to reveal and strengthen the union of the colo- 
nies, which more distinctly indicated the existence of a new 
nation on this continent. Josiah Quincy wrote, " Permit 
me to congratulate my countrymen upon the integrity and 
wisdom with which the Congress have conducted. Their 
policy, spirit, and union have confounded their foes and 
inspired their friends." 

Before adjournment, provision was made for calling 
another Congress. The War of the Revolution commenced, 
and the representatives of the people were again called 
together. They met on the 10th of May, 1775, in the State 
House in Philadelphia, that grand old Hall of Independence, 
still well preserved, and sacred in the feelings of the Ameri- 
can nation. 

This was the Congress from which came, as we have seen 
in another part of this work, the Declaration of Independ- 
ence and the old Articles of Confederation, and which fought 
the great battles of diplomacy resulting in the acknowledg- 
ment of our national independence. It had been irregularly 
constituted. There were no general laws of representation, 
nor election ; there was no constitution. It was necessary. 



DEVELOPMENT OF GOVEIINMENT. 365 

that, by whatever bodies elected, they should honestly repre- 
sent their constituents ; that they should have the confidence 
of the people, so far as that, willing or reluctant, confiding 
or doubting, they would respect them as the rulers of 
the land. It must be a voluntary or conceded obedience. 
Force could not be the method of law, nor the means of 
loyalty. There would be criticism, just and unjust; there 
would be wild and fiery spirits to manage. Men from dif- 
ferent regions, with various prejudices, must yield to the 
government of men, most of whom they had never known. 
They must surrender many of their most cherished opinions, 
and go to slaughter and death at the command of this 
body, cautiously assuming legislative, executive, and judicial 
responsibilities forced upon them by invisible power. How 
was all this to be done ? • This was God's question, and 
clearly did he answer it. He held, the brain of the nation 
steady during all these perilous days and years, and brought 
order out of chaos, revealing his governing hand in the grad- 
ual formation and progressive development of an organic 
nation. 

It will, however, be seen that the exigencies of war had 
been the means of this political organization and unity. 
For mere defence and internal growth, civil governments 
had been instituted in the difierent colonies, founding thir- 
teen States. But what was at first only resistance to force 
for self-preservation had now risen to the dignity of a war 
for national existence and rights. God had so far made the 
wrath of man to praise him as to compel the declaration of 
independence, as the result of long-continued acts of British 
oppression; and at length, by murderous injustice and cruel 
war, he would allow the continuance of oppression under 
the same sovereign control, until the people had risen, 
through discipline and blood, to the power of self-govern- 
ment; and the remainder of wrath he would restrain. 

The return of peace removed the outside pressure which 
had forced the people together. Individual independent 



366 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

interests and sectional jealousies, as we have seen, rose np 
in anger to assert their rights; and God still had in charge 
the problem of consolidating and developing a political 
government suited to a great and free nation, — a problem 
which rose immediately and distinctly above the reach of 
human wisdom and power. 



A RESPONSIBLE GOVERNiMENT. 

The growth of ideas in the Republic, from the first inau- 
guration of Washington, is most remarkable; and, in this 
country, ideas are power. The exigencies of the nation 
found the government expansive and adjustable to a re- 
markable degree. Free discussion in the preliminary assem- 
blies, the choice of men under Providence, notwithstanding 
the intrigues of demagogues and the perils of great political 
crises and vigorous forensic conflicts, with a certain indispen- 
sable amount of broad statesmanship, gradually perfected our 
system. The powers and duties of the Executive were care- 
fully defined by law, so that even the administration of a 
bad President cannot destroy our liberties. The cabinet 
grew up with the immense increase of public business, and 
surrounded the President with Ministers of State, of War, 
and of Finance, with officers in charge of the Post Office 
and the business of the Interior. These, with the official 
expounder of the public law, became the advisers of the 
Executive, the supporters of his legitimate power, and the 
administrators of immense departments of public business. 
Their associate council might be marred by the perverseness 
of an incumbent ; but under the vigilant eye of the Senate 
and House of Representatives, and the more jealous watch- 
fulness of the people, long progress in any disastrous policy 
would be highly improbable, and ultimate ruin morally 
impossible. On the whole, the guaranties of the people are 
largely increased by these combinations, hardly anticipated 
or discoverable by the reason of our wisest men, and there- 
fore the more evidently the work of God. 



DEVELOPMENT OF GOVERNMENT. 367 

It cannot be claimed that executive power is yet per- 
fectly defined, nor its necessary limits all clearly known ; but 
a President of the United States has only to violate the 
spirit of the Constitution, or intimate a disposition to tran- 
scend his legitimate prerogatives, to bring out with almost 
miraculous promptness and irresistible energy the remedies 
lying within the Constitution and the intelligent patriotism 
of the nation. 

The judiciary of the Republic arose partly out of the 
experience of the past and the records of history, but more 
out of the emergencies and legal necessities of a growing 
people. Very recent modifications show that its forms are 
deemed susceptible of improvement ; but its vital functions 
are unimpaired. The extreme democratic tendencies of 
States, making judges elective directly by the people, and 
only for a term of years, is yet an experiment, and may be 
reversed. This measure has not been adopted by the 
General Government; and there is a feeling quite general 
among the people, that the judges of law ought to be lifted 
above the reach of party power and political campaigns. 
All this, with every other contingency, can be easily brought 
to obey the commands of experience and the will of the 
nation. 

Collisions between the different departments of the gov- 
ernment are known to be possible. Thus far, however, they 
have been very rare, and limited to opinions and asserted 
rights, without the perpetration of treason. Calmly and 
steadily the Government goes on, however great the strain 
upon the Constitution, and however imminent the perils 
from perverse judgment or sectional strife. 

The law-making power of the people represented in Con- 
gress may overstep the limits of well-defined powers, only, 
however, to be promptly checked by the Supreme Court 
The Executive and Congress may reveal grave differences 
in principle and policy ; but both are responsible to the 
judiciary, and all, finally, to the people. So far, in the midst 



368 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

of the severest tests ever endured by any government, the 
Republic has shown itself capable of resisting its enemies 
from without, counteracting its dangerous tendencies from 
within, and coming out of every struggle with its principles 
better defined, and its effective power largely enhanced. 
There is, therefore, nothing in our history to indicate the 
probability of our overthrow, or the loss of our liberties, 
by the abuse of power. 

In the mean time, the period of development, so far as it 
has advanced, has witnessed the elimination of many of our 
political vices, especially those which tended to sectionalize 
our people and intensify personal hostility ; and the founda- 
tions now appear of a broader, firmer unity than has ever 
before seemed possible. Our civil and political institutions 
are more perfectly assimilated ; our mutual responsibilities 
are better defined ; and from our great extremes. North and 
South, East and West, we are drawn more compactly 
together than at any former period of our history. Our 
increasing millions are becoming more homogeneous in 
spirit ; and the feeling of mutual dependence is stronger as 
events subject our intelligence and patriotism* to severer 
tests. 

A STRONG GOVERNMENT. 

History not unfrequently reverses our judgments. The 
most natural suggestion of a free democracy was the largest 
possible liberty for the individual and for the local State : 
in other words, the concessions to the General Govern- 
ment, it was determined, should be as few, and the reserva- 
tions as many, as possible. It is not, therefore, matter of 
surprise, that at first the conceded prerogatives of the 
nation should be utterly inadequate, and that the questions 
of power which would inevitably arise would originate 
strong and even angry discussions. The old controversy 
between Federals and Democrats, and the protracted strug- 
gle between State and National rights, were most natural, 



DEVELOPMENT OF GOVERNMENT. 369 

and really inevitable. Boundaries so obscure as those be- 
tween civil and political jurisdictions must, of necessity, be 
contested : and, so far as a due degree of moderation was 
possible in the contest, it was not to be regretted ; for it 
must be conceded that distinctions are so difficult, and sacri- 
fices of private and local rights for the national good are so 
exacting upon human selfishness, and, moreover, that the 
danger of anarchy on the one hand, and despotism on the 
other, is so great, that long-continued, searching discussions, 
the severest analysis, such as can result from the collisions 
of stern intellects only, can bring out the exact truth which 
will stand the test of history, and render local and general 
government by the whole people practicable and harmo- 
nious. All this, we must freely acknowledge, was too criti- 
cal and perilous for the conduct of human wisdom ; and yet 
the higher gratitude is inspired for the superhuman con- 
trol which has prevented our ruin,'and gradually revealed 
and established the principles of our unity in harmony with 
our complete independence. " And as, in every State, each 
town, while performing some of the functions of govern- 
ment for itself, and possessing all the machinery which the 
performance of them required, looked to the State govern- 
ment for the performance of other functions, and cheerfully 
submitted to the curtailment of municipal authority, and the 
partial subordination which such relations towards the State 
required ; so was it only by the sacrifice of certain rights 
that the States could build up a central power strong enough 
to perform for them those indispensable acts of general gov- 
ernment which they could not perform for themselves." * 

Just as certainly, therefore, as the plans of God required 
the establishment, on this continent, of a great, free, and in- 
dependent nation, so certainly must personal and State 
claims, inconsistent with this purpose, yield to the impera- 
tive demands of the General Government. 

But it was inevitable that the asserted prerogatives of the 

* Greene, p. 135. 
47 



370 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. , ' 

subdivisions of our great territory should be bold and demon- 
strative. Falsely assuming that States were primary, and 
that the authority of the General Government was derived 
from the States, to justify the denial of any new claim of the 
nation, it was deemed sufficient to show that the States sev- 
erally had never made that concession. In the mean time, 
the General Government was cautious and paternal, moving 
forward slowly, and even timidly, when it might have assert- 
ed its rights peremptorily as the paramount law of the land. 
It was not from the States, but from the people, that the Re- 
public derived its powers. Not a third of the future States 
had existence when the people, by the choice of presi- 
dential electors, and members of the House of Represen- 
tatives, formally assumed the government under the Consti- 
tution. While the House of Representatives, without which 
government would, of course, be impossible, came directly 
from the people, the States, as such, were represented by the 
Senate. But the functions of senators were derived from the 
people, and they would be compelled to act as component 
parts of a popular government ; for the people, not as isolat- 
ed members of a State, but as American citizens, as freemen 
havino; riorhts in common with the whole American nation, 
which these senators would be bound to respect, would 
reach and control them. Congress would therefore make 
States, not be dependent upon and governed by them ; 
and when, in the last resort, it became necessary to test and 
forever settle the question of relative prerogatives, the peo- 
ple, as Americans, would rise up, and put down all sectional 
assumptions as against the nation. 

It was necessary not only that this security of the Gov- 
ernment should be in the original inherent and asserted 
rights of its citizens, regardless of state, county, city, and 
town boundaries, but gradually the forms of constitutional 
and statute law must be adjusted to this high necessity, so 
that disorders might be suppressed, or rebellion put down, 
in accordance with the highest dignity and demands of pub- 



DEVELOPMENT OF GOVERNMENT. 371 

lie order. Hence the Constitution expressly declares Con- 
gress shall have power " to declare war, grant letters of 
marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on 
land and water ; to raise and support armies ; to provide and 
maintain a navy; to make rules for the government and reg- 
ulation of the land and naval forces ; to provide for calling 
forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress 
insurrections, and repel invasions ; to provide for organizing, 
arming, and disciplining the militia ; " finally, " to make all 
laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into 
execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested 
by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, 
or in any department or office thereof." 

These are fundamental provisions for a strong govern- 
ment ; but the actual strength of the government will de- 
pend upon the legislation under this constitution, and the 
administration of the laws it enacts. Now, the history of 
Congress shows the caution to which we have already re- 
ferred ; and when the fears of the people were roused, and 
a central despotism began to be dreaded, amendments were 
adopted which would secure the people their just rights 
against all usurpation : and Congress joined with the sev- 
eral States, to say, in eflPect, that no form of religion should 
be established by law ; the freedom of speech and the press, 
and the right of petition, should not be abridged ; the peo- 
ple should have a right to bear arms ; the houses of citizens 
should not be invaded by quartering soldiers upon them in 
times of peace, nor, in war, contrary to law. Amendments 
were adopted to guarantee the people against unreasonable 
search; to secure the rights of justice through a grand jury, 
and of trial by a jury of their countrymen ; to forbid that 
they should be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without 
due process of law ; and to save them from excessive bail, 
fines, and cruel and unreasonable punishment. The rights 
enumerated should "not be construed to deny or dispar- 
age others retained by the people;" and it was said ex- 



372 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

pressly, that " the powers not delegated to the United States 
by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are 
reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." 

Let it thus be observed, that with the highest sense of 
justice, and with the utmost paternal care, the Government 
of the United States guards the rights of the people. But 
let it also be observed, that it does this in such a manner as 
to reserve and strengthen the central power required to vin- 
dicate those rights, and secure the integrity of the nation in- 
violate. For instance, the right of the people to bear arms 
still left the Articles intact conceding to Congress the control 
of the militia, and making " the President commander-in- 
chief of the army and navy of the United States, and of the 
militia of the several States when called into actual service 
of the United States." The reserved rights not to be in- 
fringed were those " retained by the people ; " and, what all 
fair construction must allow to be completely destructive of 
the absurd doctrine of State sovereignty as against the Gen- 
eral Government, the Tenth Article of Amendments speaks 
of " powers not delegated to the United States by the Consti- 
tution, nor prohibited by it (the Constitution) to the States ; " 
or, in other words, the powers not necessary for the full and 
vigorous exercise of the General Government ''' are reserved 
to the States respectively, or to the people." But the sover- 
eignty was in the Constitution, and the General Government 
the judge. Fully to sustain the argument of this chapter, 
to show that this permanent sovereignty of the nation was 
derived from the people, and not from the States, we have 
only to refer to the preamble of the Constitution, — " We the 
people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect 
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide 
for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and 
secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and posterity, do 
ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States 
of America." " The people " ordain the Constitution : the 
Constitution, with its necessary and ample provisions for 



DEVELOPMENT OF GOVERNMENT, 373 

amenduients, is the definition of the powers delegated to the 
United States by the people, and of the acts which the States 
are not permitted to do. All other powers " are reserved to 
the States respectively, or to the people." 

In the light of these amendments, the prohibition of all 
State acts, and the exercise of all powers which could in any " 
wise interfere with the permanent sovereignty of the nation, 
becomes very evident. 

Article I., section 10, reads, " No State shall enter into any 
treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and 
reprisal ; coin money ; emit bills of credit ; make any thing 
but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts ; pass 
any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the 
obligations of contracts; or grant any title of nobility. 

" No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay 
any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what 
may be absolutely necessary for "executing its inspection- 
laws; and the net produce of all duties and imposts laid by 
any State on imports or exports shall be for the use of the 
treasury of the United States ; and all such laws shall be 
subject to the revision and control of the Congress. 

" No State shall, without consent of Congress, lay any 
duty of tonnage, keep troops or ships of war in time of peace, 
enter into any agreement or compact with another State 
or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually 
invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of 
delay." 

How utterly incompatible all this is with every act of 
secession, and all such assumptions of " State rights " as have 
been relied upon to justify treason, all who can read or 
understand must know. 

One thing more. " The writ of habeas corpus " is a very 
sacred privilege ; but the founders of our government fore- 
saw that contingencies might arise in which this privilege 
would seriously interfere with the administration of justice 
or the prompt suppression of rebellion. The Constitution 



374 I'HE GEE AT REPUBLIC. 

therefore provided thtat " the privilege of the writ of habeas 
corpus shall not be suspended, unless when, in cases of rebel- 
lion or invasion, the public safety may require it." Then, of 
course, it may and ought to be suspended. 

Let the provisions for an effective government now be care- 
fully summed up as follows : The people as a nation are an 
organic unit. They are so, not by the loss of their individu- 
ality or personal rights, but by the maintenance of them. 
They have made their own government, and are pleased with 
it. They have thrown around it such guards, and so imbued 
it with their own life, that no man, nor number of men, can 
by any possibility destroy it, unless by actual force. It is 
invested, therefore, with the strength of all our growing mil- 
lions, acting under control of common principles and one 
common life. In its fullest expression, this is the will of God 
as manifested in the mental constitution and fortified by rev- 
elation, — the free responsible action of the human soul. 
" With Christianity came individual rights as the necessary 
consequence of individual responsibilities ; the right of decid- 
ing and acting for self in civil society, as a necessary conse- 
quence of the obligation to answer for self at the bar of 
God." * How these freemen have considered it proper to 
use this right, we have seen ; and a grand consolidated Re- 
public rises up before us as the result. 

It is now more distinctly understood than heretofore that 
our government must be strong as well as free. Our ex- 
tended domain, and still more extended commercial and dip- 
lomatic relations, suggest it, and the ambition of sectional 
leaders demonstrates it. The government of the United 
States is strong in the freedom, the affections, the union, the 
moral power, of its people : hence it is, that, when the exi- 
gencies of the nation demand it, immense armies, sustained 
by inexhaustible resources of wealth, intelligence, and vir- 
tue, can be 'commanded with unprecedented promptness, and 
concentrated in unparalleled energy. If the people find 

* Greene, p. 109. 



DEVELOPMENT OF GOVERNMENT. 375 

obstructions in their way, they remove them. If usurpers 
attempt to destroy their national unity, they crush them ac- 
cording to due forms of law. When enemies become peni 
tent and harmless, the sovereign people are magnanimous. 
This is what we mean by a strong government. When all 
citizens, in time of danger, are soldiers and patriots by in- 
stinct, and the government is invested with full power to 
command them at discretion, and the reign of God over the 
career and destiny of the Republic is the most sacred faith 
of the people, we may well adopt the words at the beginning 
of this chapter: "A true democracy has at last established 
itself, that not only develops an intenser centralization than 
despotism ever boasted, but that develops and also vindicates 
it by a completer freedom than could ever before be permit- 
ted." 

On the fourth day of July, 1776, the grandest fact in history 
was the Declaration of American Independence. Less than 
a hundred years have passed; and the exclamation, " I am an 
American citizen," has become the proudest claim and surest 
guaranty possible to a human being. 



CHAPTER IV. 

DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNAL RESOURCES. 

" The more a man is versed in business, the more he finds the hand of Providence 
everywhere." — Cuatham. 

The field to be surveyed in this chapter is very large. 
The facts condensed from a great variety of sources are 
of the greatest importance to the American people, and 
fundamental to our argument. The materials are ample for 
a volume ; but those which properly belong to this historical 
discussion may be brought within the compass of a few 
pages. 

It is not material from which census of American products 
we gather our figures. The decade now passing, and ending 
with 1870, will furnish many startling facts, showing the 
growth of the country during the great war of emancipa- 
tion, which will increase the scope of the argument, bringing 
out the plans and acts of God in the great American system. 
We have, however, now before us more than we are likely to 
comprehend or appreciate. 

PRODUCTS OF THE SOIL. 

The soil is the first grand source of American wealth. 
Farming is the most natural and most important occupation 
of large numbers of our people. The census of 1860 shows, 
that, out of 8,217,000, more than 3,000,000 were engaged 
in this department of industry. The proportion exceeds 
one-third of all heads of families and others laboring for 
themselves. In the year above named, there were improved 

.376 



DEVELOPMENT OF INTEK>iAL EESOURCES. 



Oil 



lands, 116,110,720 acres; lands enclosed, but not improved, 
244,101,818 acres; outside lands, a large proportion tillable, 
1,466,969,862 acres. 

The farms of the Republic in 1850 were estimated at 
$3,271,575,000; in 1860, $6,645,045,000, — an increase of 
a hundred and three per cent in ten years. 

It cannot be claimed that agriculture has reached any 
thing like perfection in the United States. The farms are 
so large, so many productions are so nearly spontaneous, 
and the lands, with even negligent cultivation, produce so 
abundantly, and withal the price of labor is so high, that the 
people generally lack the stimulus felt in England to make 
the most of every foot of ground. Enough progress, it is 
true, has been made in agricultural chemistry, and the use 
of fertilizers, to show that American lands respond to the 
various modes of scientific farming as generously as the 
most highly-cultivated lands of Europe, and to show that 
the capabilities of the soil are practically without limits. 
But our productions, notwithstanding our negligence in 
cultivation, and waste in harvesting, are actually enormous. 
The following tables show the produce of 1860 : — 



Wheat, bushels, 

Indian Corn, ,, 

Oats, ,, 

Barley, ,, 

Buckwheat, ,, 

Pease and Beans, ,, 
Bye, 

Potatoes, ,, 

Sweet Potatoes, ,, 
Clover-seed, ,, 

Grass-seed, „ 

Flax-seed, ,, 

Wine, gallons, 

Cane Molasses, ,, 
Maple ,, ,, 

Sorghum ,, ,, 

Wool, pounds, 

48 



173,104,924 

838,792,740 

172,643,185 

15,825,898 

15,571,818 

15,061,995 

21,101,380 

111,148,867 

42,095,026 

956,188 

900,040 

566,867 

1,627,242 

15,000,000 

1,597,000 

6,749,123 

60,264,913 



378 



THE GREAT ItEPUBLIC. 



Butter, pounds, 

Cheese, 

Hops, 

Flax, 

Tobacco, 

Rice, 

Ginned Cotton, 

Silk Cocoon, 

Maple-sugar, 

Cane ,, 

Honey, 

Beeswax, 

Hay, tons. 

Hemp, ,, 

Orchard Produce, 

Market 

Animals slaughtered, 

Home-made Manufactures, 



value, dollars, 



400,000,000 

103,663,927 

10,991,996 

4,720,145 

434,209,461 

187,107,032 

2,104,096,500 

11,944 

40,120,205 

230,982,000 

23,366,357 

1,322,787 

19,088,896 

74,493 

20,000,000 

16,159,498 

213,618,692 

24,546,876 



It ought to be stated that the most rapid mcrease of 
products from the soil is in our great North-west. Take a 
few facts in illustration of this unparalleled growth. Grain 
and flour were shipped from Milwaukie, Wis., as follows : — 



Year. 

1841 

1845 
1850 

1852 
1855 
1860 
1862 



Bushels. 

4,000 

143,260 

820,033 

1,772,753 

3,758,900 

9,995,000 

18,712,880 



Shipments eastward from Michigan ports, chiefly from 



Chicago : — 



Year. 

1858 
1859 
1860 
1861 

1862 
1868 



Bushels. 

27,879,293 
25,829,753 
43,211,448 
69,489,113 
78,214,675 
74,710,664 



DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNAL KESOXJECES. 379 

" The production of grain in the North-western States 
of America is estimated to have increased from 218,463,583 
bushels in 1840 to 642,120,366 bushels in 1860. The eight 
food-producing States west of the Lakes embrace an area 
of 262,549,000 acres, of which only 52,000,000 acres were 
under cultivation in 1860. Having regard to the rapid 
progress of cultivation, and the immense extent of territory 
remaining to be tilled, I think it is not to be questioned that 
there is ample room and scope for increased production ; in 
fact, I look upon the exportation of grain from these States 
as only to be limited by want of facilities for transporta- 
tion." * 

California, so recently considered valuable only for its 
extensive gold-fields, now raises large quantities of grain in 
excess of the wants of her population. " In 1861, the export 
of wheat from San Francisco amounted to 2,379,617 bushels, 
valued at $2,550,820 ; and the export of flour to 186,455 
barrels, valued at $1,001,894. In 1863, California is esti- 
mated to have produced 11,664,000 bushels of wheat, and 
5,293,000 bushels of barley." 

In 1866, large numbers on the Atlantic slope received 
their bread for months from the vast and splendid ranches 
of California, where an average of forty bushels of wheat to 
the acre is not at all unusual. In cereals, vegetables, and 
fruit, the ^productions of this State are unrivalled, and almost 
incredible. 

California is one of the greatest grazing countries in the 
world. Its foot-hills and mountains are covered with wild 
oats, w^iich furnish a very rich food for cattle, horses, and 
sheep. On the coast, and fir back into the interior, the 
various grains and grasses cure on the stalk ; and the cattle 
grow fat on them during the long drought of the summer. 
The cattle-ranches take in thousands of acres each, on the 
mountains, of such land as would be of no value in the 
East ; while the vast old Spanish ranches, leagues in extent, 

* Resources and Prospects of America, by Sir Morton Peto, pp. 56-58. 



380 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

cover the valleys, and are occupied by thousands of sheep 
and cattle, under the care of " herders," who stay with them 
constantly. In 1863, there were 3,000,000 sheep in Cali- 
fornia, since which the flocks have increased immensely. 
The number of horses in this State advanced in ten years 
from 27,719 to 160,610. Cattle have increased in propor- 
tion ; and in every class of domestic animals are included 
some of the best-blooded stock in the world. 

In the United States, in 1860, we numbered 87,000,483 
useful live animals, estimated at $1,089,329,915. Our 
immense grazing-fields are therefore easily converted into 
wealth, in the form of wool, hides, butter, cheese, &c. This 
resource of the United States is capable of indefinite 
increase. 

Our vast surplus of Indian corn is easily converted into 
ready money by fattening our herds of swine. Exact esti- 
mates here are difficult; but it is approximately true to say, 
that, in the year of the last census, some 3,000,000 were 
slaughtered, their estimated value being $35,000,000. To 
this sum add $15,000,000, the cost of packing and trans- 
portation, and this one department of trade reaches $50,- 
000,000; while the value of all the animals slaughtered 
in the United States in 1860 amounted to $213,000,000. 

The products of the great Southern staples deserve special 
mention. Cotton, spinning-jennies, and Whitney's cotton- 
gin, connect us with the largest industries of the world. In 
1820, we produced 430,000 bales of cotton ; in 1850, 2,755,- 
257 bales ; in 1860, 4,675,770 bales, or 2,104,096,500 pounds. 
The cash value of this product, from 1850 to 1855, amounted 
to $491,477,517. 

MANUFACTURES AND MACHINES. 

We are not professedly a manufacturing people. The 
country is too large, there are too many departments of 
productive industry, and labor is too high. Our citizens 
are, moreover, too much averse to routine and fixed posi- 



DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNAL EESOUKCES. 381 

tions to make the best use of their mechanical powers. In 
Europe, restrictions to certain trades amount almost to caste, 
and in Asia quite. The father's employment becomes that 
of the son, and so on, generation after generation. The 
boy sees little but his father's trade, knows little else. He 
begins to learn it by observation as soon as he is capable of 
intelligent perception. He grows up with fellow-craftsmen, 
hears hardly any thing else, and, at a lawful age, sits down 
to his seven-years' trade as a matter of course. England is 
in this way turned into one vast workshop. Hence, also, 
the great skill in manufacturing costly fabrics acquired in 
France, Belgium, Germanj', and Thibet. 

But it is quite otherwise in America. Here, if the boy 
does not like the trade of his father (and he is pretty sure not 
to like it), he immediately looks for something else ; and 
hereditary skill and experience are very generally lost. If 
he does not take a fancy to the occupation he has chosen, he 
dashes off, and tries something else. Then there is a species 
of personal ambition and pride which is quite American ; and, 
though it may lead to good results in some instances, it is 
very likely to be injurious. Every child expects to rise 
higher than his parents. He knows he has better oppor- 
tunities for education. He wishes a more elevated, or 
at least a more lucrative, employment. He has no idea, 
therefore, of settling down on the old homestead, and making 
a life-drudgery of his flitlier's trade. He will be off for the 
West, or to the city, or to the gold-fields of California. He 
has an idea that he may be in the Legislature or Congress 
yet ; that he shall come back, a governor or president, to 
visit his parents, and confer honor upon them in their old 
age. At least, ho expects to become a great merchant and 
a millionnaire, a lawyer, minister, doctor, school-teacher, or 
politician, and in some way rise to distinction and useful- 
ness, or, at the very worst, get his living by his wits. 

Now, these changing, experimenting, rushing tendencies 
produce a few great men, but many more failures. They 



382 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

give vigor and rapidity of development to the nation, but, 
it may be feared, at the expense of sohd virtue and patient 
perfection. If a hundred to one of our young men would 
be content with the avocations of honest industry to which 
they are suited, there would be much more stability and 
happiness, and a much stronger development of the mind 
and heart and wealth of the nation. 

But, at all events, it may be asked, " How are a large 
relative number of splendid mechanics and a manufacturing 
people to be made of our hot-brained American youth?" 
It may be fairly answered, that this is impossible. But there 
will, nevertheless, be a real and considerable success from 
American genius and tact, and an ample accession of trained 
artisans from abroad. So far has this providential arrange- 
ment for compensation proceeded, as to make our past 
highly respectable, and to render all necessary independ- 
ence certain in the future. 

The manufecture of cotton fabrics in the United States 
has increased rapidly. New England, in 1860, employed 
3,959,297 spindles, using 237,844,854 pounds of cotton, 
producing goods valued at $80,301,535; the Middle 
States, 861,661 spindles, 75,055,666 pounds, value of goods, 
$26,272,111 ; in the remaining States, this class of fabrics 
manufactured amounted to $8,564,280. In the whole 
country, we employed that year 45,315 males and 73,605 
females, making 118,920 operatives; an increase of 20,964 
in ten years. The value of our cotton manufactures for 
the year was $115,137,926 ; an advance of 76 per cent since 
1850. 

In the manufacture of woollen and mixed goods, in 1860, 
we employed a capital of $35,520,527 ; 28,780 males, and 
20,120 females; 639,700 spindles, and 16,075 looms, work- 
ing up 80,000,000 pounds of wool, with 16,008,625 of cotton. 
The value of the raw material was $40,360,300 ; and of the 
manufactured goods, $68,865,963 ; an increase of fifty-one 
per cent in ten years. 



DEVELOPMENT OF INTEENAL RESOURCES. 383 

"The total value of domestic manufactures (including 
fisheries and the products of the mines), according to the 
census of 1850, was $1,109,106,616. The product of the 
same branches for the year ending June 1, 1860," would 
reach " an aggregrate value of nineteen hundred millions of 
dollars ; an increase of more than eightj^-six per cent in 
ten years, exceeding the increase of even the white popu- 
lation by a hundred and twenty-three per cent." 

Our various manufactories have thus given " employment 
to about 1,100,000 men and 285,000 women, or 1,385,000 
persons ; and direct support to 4,847,500 persons, or nearly 
one-sixth of the entire population." 

These facts exalt our manufacturing interests, far above 
the popular estimate, to the first rank of importance among 
the industries of the country. 

Extensive manufactures carry with them a large amount 
of machine-making. Our ample steam and water power 
are made extensively available by our skilful machinists for 
the production of enormous wealth. " The construction of 
hydraulic machinery, of stationary and locomotive steam- 
engines, and all the machinery used in mines, mills, fur- 
naces, forges, and factories, in the building of roads, bridges, 
canals, railways, &c., and for all other purposes of the 
engineer and manufacturer," produced returns from " ma- 
chinists' and millwrights' establishments, in 1850, amounting 
to §27,998,344; and in 1860, not including the sewing- 
machine, to 147,118,550." 

The proud distinction of inventing the sewing-machine 
belongs to America. It is an invention of the greatest prac- 
tical importance. " It has opened avenues to profitable and 
healthful industry for thousands of industrious females, to 
whom the labors of the needle had become wholly unre- 
munerative, and injurious in their effect's." The manufac- 
ture and sale of the machines has become a lucrative busi- 
ness. In 1860, in nine States, 116,330 machines were made, 
worth $5,605,345. In 1861, we exported machines to the 
amount of over $61,000. 



384 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

The value of clothing made in twelve States and the 
District of Columbia rose, chiefly by the power of this in- 
valuable machine, from $43,678,802 in 1850 to $64,002,975 
in 1860; an increase of $20,324,173, or seventy-three per 
cent, in ten years. 

The rapid progress of the Americans in the invention 
of labor-saving machines, largely employed in the various 
departments of husbandry, is worthy of special attention. 

Though the honor of inventing and bringing first to 
practical use the threshing-machine belongs fairly to the 
Scotchmen Michael Menzies and Andrew Meikle, the idea 
soon thoroughly seized the practical American mind. In 
1833, a strange instrument, invented by Obed Hussey of 
Ohio, it was said, " cradled wheat as fast as eight persons 
could bind it." Within the brief period v/hich has since 
elapsed, inventions and improvements in machinery have 
wrought a complete revolution in the despatch and economy 
of farming in America. Fairs and exhibitions have greatly 
stimulated the spirit of invention ; and " the Great Exhibi- 
tion of 1851 " placed American implements for farming uses 
at the head of the world. 

In 1850, the value of our manufactures in this depart- 
ment amounted to $6,842,611. In 1860, the amount rose 
to $17,802,514 ; an increase of one hundred and sixty per 
cent. 

The value of agricultural implements employed in the 
United States in 1860 reached $246,118,141. You may 
add for wagons, carts, and wheelbarrows, $11,796,991 ; mak- 
ing an aggregate of $257,915,132. Cotton-gins, hoes, shovels, 
spades, and forks, are omitted. 

PRECIOUS METALS. 

"On the nineteenth day of January, 1848, ten days before 
the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo, James W. Marshall, while 
engaged in digging a race for a sawmill at Caloma, about 



DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNAL EESOUECES. 385 

thirty-five miles eastward from Sutter's Fort, found some 
pieces of yellow metal, which he and the half-dozen men 
working with him supposed to be gold." He collected a 
large number of specimens, and submitted them to Isaac 
Humphrey, an experienced miner from Georgia, who saw at 
a glance the evidence of " rich diggings." He went to the 
locality of Marshall's discovery, and immediately commenced 
washing out the precious metal, making an ounce or two a 
day. Others, of course, promptly joined him, using pans, or 
" rockers " of their own construction. On the 15th of March, 
the following announcement was made in the California 
paper at San Francisco : — 

" In the newly-made raceway of the sawmill recently 
erected by Capt. Sutter, on the American Fork, gold has 
been found in considerable quantities. One person brought 
thirty dollars to New Helvetia, gathered there in a short 
time." This vast country now belonged to the United 
States; and Americans were beginning to look through it to 
see what w«re the prospects for future wealth in this new 
addition to the Great Republic. Of course, the above 
announcement produced a stir among them ; and, on the 
29th of May, the same paper announced its suspension, and 
said, " The whole country from San Francisco to Los Ange- 
les, and from the seashore to the base of the Sierra Nevada, 
resounds with the sordid cry of Gold, gold, gold ! ' while the 
field is left half planted, the house half built, and every tiling 
neglected but the manufacture of picks and shovels, and 
the means of transportation to the spot, where one man 
obtained a hundred and twenty-eight dollars' worth of the 
real stuff in one day's washing ; and the average for all 
concerned is twenty dollars per diem." 

From this the excitement spread abroad through every 
part of the United States and in foreign countries ; and 1849 
became distinguished as the year of the heglra to the New 
Eldorado, and the beginning of a new era in the wealth of 
the United States and the basis of commerce. 



386 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

The processes adopted for obtaining the precious metal 
illustrated the American genius. Scientific mining was not 
known. But various inventions and unparalleled enter- 
prise supplied all defects. The pan, the rocker, the tom, 
the flume, the shaft, the tunnel, the prospecting, the wander- 
ing and rushing from place to place, the ditches, the dams, 
the turning of rivers, the quarrying of quartz, the stamps, 
the blankets, the vats, the races, the quicksilver, the 
blasting, the hydraulics, and innumerable other methods of 
gathering the shining dust, all indicated the passionate vio- 
lence and the unconquerable energy of the American people. 
Towns sprang up in the gulches and on the foot-hills ; the 
beds of rivers were explored for miles and miles ; whole re- 
gions were torn up by the blast, the pick, the shovel, and the 
hose ; hills and small mountains were literally blown or washed 
to pieces ; and the mining-belt stretched the length of the 
Pacific coast, and far up on the Sierras. Europeans and 
Asiatics mingled in the strife ; and the population of the 
State increased with unprecedented rapidity. 

Mining processes have at length become much more regu- 
lar and economical. New inventions have superseded not 
only the rustic implements of 1849 and 1850, but the best 
heretofore known ; and though many of the metallurgic pro- 
cesses established by science have yet to be introduced for 
separating the precious metals from their ores, and exhaustr 
ing the localities prematurely abandoned, it must be admitted, 
that, as a whole, the processes of mining for gold and silver 
have advanced rapidly under the inventive genius of the 
American mind. 

The discovery of silver in Washoe is an event of historic 
importance. Gold was found in Gold Canon, a little tribu- 
tary of Carson River, in 1849. Miners, however, did not like 
the locality. There was so much silver mixed with the gold 
as to reduce the price of dust to from ten to twelve dollars 
per ounce, whereas "' that obtained from the western slope of 
the Sierra usually sold for seventeen or eighteen dollars." 



DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNAL KESOURCES. 387 

In 1859, a quartz lode was found on what is now known 
as Goldhill. " Two months later, some miners, in following 
up a placer-bed in which the gold was mixed with about an 
equal weight of silver, came on the lode from which the 
metal had been washed down." This was the famous " Com- 
stock Lode," the discovery of which formed Virginia City 
and the State of Nevada, and introduced a new era in the 
mining wealth of the continent. " It is now the most pro- 
ductive mineral vein in the world. A strip of land six 
bundled yards wide, and three miles long, yields $12,000,000 
annually." James Walsh, an intelligent quartz-miner from 
Grass Valley, seems to have been the first to detect the real 
value of the " dark-gray stone " found here, a ton and a half 
of which he sent to San Francisco, where it was sold for 
$3,000 per ton. He and some of his friends bought four- 
fifths of 1,800 feet for $22,000, or $14 a foot. So rapidly 
did the estimate of this claim rise, that, before the end of 
the year, its market-value was $1,000 a foot. " The silver- 
panic " in Washoe soon exceeded the former gold-panic in 
California. Discoveries in Esmeralda, Humboldt, Reese River, 
and other localities, followed, and at length the mines which 
gave new impulse and development to Oregon and Wash- 
ington, and founded the Territories and future States of 
Idaho and Montana. 

Let the following estimates, made by the superintendent 
of the mint at San Francisco, indicate the results of these 
various discoveries, and this unparalleled energy. 

Gold and silver from California, Oregon, Nevada, and 
Washington Territory : — 

1861 $43,391,000 

1862 49,370,000 

1863 52,500,000 

1864 . 63,450,000 

1865 70,000,000 

The second report of J. Ross Brown, just finished, gives 
as the product of gold, the last year, $70,000,000; and of 
Nevada silver, $19,000,000. 



888 



THE GREAT EEPB^BLIC. 



The estimate for 1866 is as follows: — 



California . 






$25,000,000 


Montaua 






18,000,000 


Idaho .... 






17,000,000 


Colorado 






17,000,000 


Nevada . . . , 






16,000,000 


Oregon 






8,000,000 


Other sources 






5,000,000 


Total 






$106,000,000 



In the mean time, the capital in business circulation 
in California must have been in the neighborhood of 
$30,000,000, and some $10,000,000 are shipped annually to 
the mines to pay current mining-expenses. In a recent 
financial crisis in Europe, the power of American wealth 
from the mines appeared, in the export from San Francisco 
of $12,000,000 of gold and silver in sixty days. The first 
eight months of 1866, the shipments of specie from San 
Francisco amounted to. $27,729,010. It is safe to consider 
our gold-fields and silver-mines practicably inexhaustible. 

Some idea of " the importance of the gold and silver 
mines of the Pacific coast on the national welfare " may be 
obtained from the fact, that " the product of these metals, 
for a single year," exceeds in amount all the gold and 
silver in the national treasury, and in all the banks in all 
the States : — 



Bullion in the Treasury, Aug. 1, 1865 . 
Banks at New York, at same date, held 
Banks at Boston and Philadelphia 
National Banks in the United States 
State Banks, outside of those, estimated . 

Amounting in the aggregate to 



$61,000,000 

5,000,000 

600,000 

1,600,000 

1,500,000 

$69,700,000 



Whereas the products of the mines of the Pacific coast in 
1866 amount to at least $106,000,000. 

The whole " amount of treasure manifested for exporta- 
tion from San Francisco" from 1849 to 1865, inclusive, was 



DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNAL RESOURCES. 



389 



$740,832,623. To this must be added some $50,000,000 
in use in the Pacific States and Territories ; for gold jewelry, 
silver plate, and specimens of nuggets and rich ores, say 
$5,000,000 ; gold-dust buried by miners in distant camps, 
some $5,000,000 more. Dust, coin, and bars carried away 
by miners, and not manufactured, must swell this additional 
amount, in sixteen years, to $200,000,000. In round num- 
bers, therefore, the yield of precious metals from our Pacific 
fields, in sixteen years, must have risen to the enormous 
sum of $1,000,000,000. 

We must now glance at the mining regions east of the 
Rocky Mountains. These include portions of the Territories 
of New Mexico, Colorado, and Montana; Minnesota, north- 
west of Lake Superior, and upon the eastern slope of the 
Alleghany range; the States of Georgia, South Carolina, 
North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland ; and recently gold 
has been found in New Hampshire. The yields from the 
various auriferous and argentiferous localities in these States 
and Territories cannot be accurately ascertained. 

The deposits of gold at the United-States mint and its 
branches, between 1804 and 1866, from the States traversed 
by the Appalachian gold-field, are reported as follows: — 



Virginia . 
North Carolina 
South Carolina 
Georgia 
Alabama . 



Aggregate 



$1,570,182.82 

9,278,627.67 

1,353,663.98 

6,971,681.50 

201,784.83 

$19,375,890.80 



If we assume, what is doubtless true, that about an equal 
amount passed into manufactures or foreign commerce, with- 
out deposit for coinage, the aggregate production would 
be about $40,000,000, of which fully three-fourths, or 
$30,000,000, was mined between 1828 and 1848. 

Nuo-irets were found in North Carolina from 1799 to 1835, 
varying from a pound and a half to twenty-eight pounds. 



390 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

"The auriferous veins of Colorado are represented to 
be from six inches to nine feet in width. Gov. Evans 
claims, that, in most of the lodes now worked, the quartz 
rock yields an average of thirty-six dollars per ton, but that 
a production threefold greater may be expected when the re- 
duction of ores reaches the perfection of a scientific assay." 

From Montana, the yield was estimated as follows : — 

1863 $2,000,000 

1864 5,000,000 

1865 6,000,000 

1866 12,000,000 

Amounting to . . . $25,000,000 

" The assays of argentiferous galena have exhibited results 
from $100 to $1,700 per ton." 

It is hardly necessary to say that the vast fields of wealth 
in the newer portions of our country remain to be thoroughly 
explored. 

It is carefully estimated that the production of gold and 
silver in the world in 1866 amounted to $210,000,000, of 
which $80,000,000 were from the United States. By com- 
parison with the foregoing, it will be seen that the figures 
relating to our country are far below the facts. 

Copper is an immense source of wealth in the United 
States. The copper regions of Lake Superior have long 
been famous the world over. Recent discoveries on the 
Pacific coast have brought out enormous accessions to this 
wealth. Some of these deposits were known before California 
became a State of the Republic. Dr. Trask, however, State 
geologist from 1851 to 1854, brought forward evidence that 
valuable copper ore was found in nearly every county. 
Nothing of importance was done toward the development 
of these mines until 1860, when Hiram Hughes discovered 
the famous Napoleon Mine among the Gopher Hills in Cala- 
veras County. Not understanding the character of his dis- 
covery, he sent " a lot of the ore to San Francisco, where 



DEVELOPMENT OF INTEENAL RESOURCES. 391 

it was pronounced thirty per cent copper ore, and worth 
about a hundred and twenty dollars per ton." The copper 
excitement then commenced ; and it has raged at different 
times up to the present, fairly equalling, if not exceeding, 
the excitement from the discovery of gold and silver. 

The most important mining districts from which ores have 
been exported are Copperopolis, Table Mountain, Napoleon, 
Lancha Plana, Campo Seco, and Copper Hill, in Calaveras 
County, the Newton in Cosumnes, Hope Valley in Ama- 
dor County, the Buchanan in Fresno County, the Osos in 
San Louis Obespo County, the Soledad in Los Angeles 
County, the Rockland in Oregon, the Pea-vine in Nevada, 
the Favorita and Sauce in Lower California, and the Wil- 
liams Fork in Arizona. 

Of these, the best developed, and, thus far, the most pro- 
ductive, are the Copperopolis Mines, in Salt-spring Valley, 
Calaveras County, about thirty-five miles nearly east from 
Stockton. " The lode on which the Union, Keystone, Em- 
pire, Calaveras, and consolidated mines are located, passes 
through this valley, in the direction of north, 30*^ west. It 
has been more or less developed for about fifteen miles. 
There seem to be four other nearly parallel lodes, from a 
few feet to six miles' distance from the main lode. This 
cupriferous belt has been traced, with comparatively slight 
interruptions, from this valley to the American River ; its 
general course being about north, 15*^ west." 

" The Union " contains, in all probability, " the largest body 
of yellow sulphurets of copper ever discovered." The stock- 
holders have never been obliged to pay assessments. In 
December, 1862, it paid a dividend of $11,000 a share ; and, 
"during the year 1863, the dividends amounted to $20,000 
per share, clear of all expenses." Since this time, the yield 
has been prudently withheld from the public. It is alleged, 
that, " in the winter of 1863, the firm paid Mr. Reed, one of 
the original locators, $60,000 in cash for nine hundred and 
seventy-eight feet." " In 1864, Mr. Hardy, another of the 



392 THE GEEAT REPUBLIC. 

original locators, it is stated, sold his interest in the mine to 
the same firm for $650,000." The extent of wealth and 
business in these copper-mines is such as to justify the con- 
struction of a railroad to Stockton, thirty-five miles, chiefly 
for freight. 

Doubtless many other mines of this valuable ore are to be 
developed, adding to the increasing wealth of the Pacific 
States. The lodes are innumerable, and practically inexhaust- 
ible. 

OTHER MINERALS AND ORES. 

Quicksilver is very abundant in California. " Cinnabar is 
the only valuable ore of the mercury of commerce, which is 
prepared from it by sublimation. It is a sulphide (sulphuret) 
of mercury, composed, when pure, of quicksilver 82.21, sul- 
phur 13.8 ; in which case it is a natural vermilion, and iden- 
tical with the vermilion of commerce." There are mines 
of cinnabar at Almaden, near Cordova, in Spain, Idria in 
Upper Carmithia, in China, Japan, and in Pluanca Vilica in 
South Peru. One of the richest mines, however, thus far 
discovered, is at New Almaden, some thirteen miles from 
San Jos^, Cal. Prof B. Silliman, jun., states that " a charge 
of 101,000 pounds, of which 70,000 were composed of this 
rich ore, 31,000 pounds of ' granza,' or ordinary ore, and 
48,000 pounds of adobes, worth four per cent, making a total 
charge of 105,800 pounds, yielded, on the day of our visit, 
460 flasks of mercury, at seventy-six pounds and a half to 
the flask." 

The ore mined and reduced in 18^- j amounted to 16,000 
tons, or 31,948,400 pounds ; yieldir ^ 47,194 flasks, or 3,604,- 
465J pounds, of quicksilver. 

During ten months of 1866, the product of quicksilver 
from this mine was 30,029 flasks. 

Large quantities are used in the mines of California; but 
the extent of the yield may be inferred from the fact that 
quicksilver was exported from New Almaden to New York, 



DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNAL RESOURCES. 



193 



Great Britain, Mexico, China, Peru, Chili, Central America, 
Japan, Australia, Panama, and Victoria, V. L, as follows : — 



1859 . 


3,399 flasks 


1860 . 


. . . 9,448 „ 


1861 . 


. 35,995 „ 


1862 . 


. 33,745 „ 


1863 . 


. 26,014 „ 


1864 . 


. 36,918 „ 


1865 . 


. . . 47,194 „ 



Other mines add to this production of wealth: — 



Guadaloupo, average flasks per month 
New Idria, ,, ,, ,, ,, 

Knox and Redin2;ton, 



150 
500 
300 



We must be content with a simple catalogue of the prin- 
cipal mineral species hitherto recognized in California and 
the adjoining States and Territories : — 



Actinolite. 

Alabaster. 

Andalusite. 

Antimony (sulphuret). 

Antimony, ochre. 

Agates and carnelian. 

Arsenic. 

Arsenolite. 

Asbestos. 

Azuiite (blue carbonate of copper). 

Biotite. 

Bitumen. 

Blende. 

Borax. 

Boraeic acid. 

Carbonate of magnesia. 

Cassiterite. 

Cerusite (carbonate of lead). 

Chalcedony. 

Chalcopyrite (yellow copper-ore). 

Chloride of silver. 

ChrysocoUa (silicate of copper). 
fio 



Chromic iron. 

Chrysolite. 

Cinnabar. 

Corundum. 

Copper, native. 

Copper glance. 

Derbyshire spar. 

Diallogite (carbonate of manganese). 

Diamond. 

Dolomite. 

Embohte. 

Emerald nickel. 

Feldspar. 

Fluorspar. 

Galena (sulphuret of lead). 

Garnet. 

Gold (crystalline). 

Gold and tellurium. 

Gray copper-ore. 

Graphite. 

Gypsum. 

Hematite (specular iron-ore). 



194 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 



Hessite. 

Hornblende. 

Hyalite. 

Idocrase. 

Iodide of mercury. 

Ilmenite. 

Iron-ores. 

Iridosmine. 

Iron pyrites. 

Jasper. 

Kerargyrite. 

Lignite. 

Linionite. 

Made. 

Magnesite (carbonate of magnesia). 

Magnetite. 

Malachite (green carbonate of copper). 

Manganese, oxide. 

Manganese, carbonate of. 

Mercury. 

Mercury, iodide of. 

Mispickel. 

Molybdate of lead. 

Molybdenite. 

Mountain cork. 

Nickel. 

Orthoclase. 

Opal, — semi-opal. 

Pearl spar. 

Petroleum. 

Platina. 

Proustite (light-red silver-ore). 

Pyrargyrite (dark-red silver-ore). 



Pyrolusite. 

Pyrophyllite. 

Pyroxene. 

Pyromorphite (phosphate of lead). 

Pyrrhotine (magnetic pyrites). 

Quartz. 

Red oxide of copper. 

Ruby silver (pyrargyrite). 

Salt-rock salt. 

Schorl-selenite. 

Selenide of mercury. 

Silver, native. 

Silver (telluret of). 

Smoky quartz. 

Sphene. 

Stephanite (brittle sulphuret of sil.). 

Stibnite. 

Stroymeyerite. 

Sulphur. 

Sulphuret of silver. 

Sulphuret of iron. 

Telluret of silver. 

Tetrahedrite (gray copper). 

Tellurium and gold (tetradymite). 

Tin-ore (oxide of tin). 

Topaz. 

Tourmaline. 

Tremolite. 

Tunn;state of manganese. 

Variegated copper-ore. 

Vitreous copper. 

Zinc. 



Coal is found in sufficient quantities on the Pacific slope to 
be of great importance. It is not of the best quality. The 
carboniferous formations from which the coals of Pennsyl- 
vania and the Mississippi Valley are taken do not exist on the 
Pacific slope ; but coal has been found in all the other great 
groups of rocks. " The brown coal of Germany, of nearly 
the same geological age as that of the Oregon mines, has 
been worked for many years with profit." Bellingham Bay, 



DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNAL RESOURCES. 



395 



in the extreme north-west of Washington Territory, furnishes 
coal of compensating quahty and quantity. The quahty of 
that taken from Coos Bay is above the average on the coast. 
Considerable quantities have also been brought into the 
San-Francisco market from Monte Diabolo. The growth 
and promise of the coal-trade on the Pacific coast may be 
indicated by the following estimate of imports into San 
Francisco since 1860: — 





Foreign Co^ls. 


Eastern. 


Domestic 




Tons. 


Tons. 


Tons. 


1860 . . . 


. 23,045 


40,955 


8,635 


1861 


. 65.905 


29,035 


21,305 


1862 


. 40,625 


41,655 


36,265 


1863 


. 39,085 


44,330 


52,135 


1864 


. 54,600 


48,955 


50,495 


1865 


. 45,675 


26,815 


74,760 


1866 (last nine uaonths) 


. 48,375 


13,127 


66,177 



These figures show a very large relative increase of coals 
in use from the Pacific coal-fields; a tendency which is 
likely to increase. 

But the great coal-regions of the United States are in the 
East, and chiefly in Pennsylvania. 

Anthracite " coal was first employed at a forge in Wyo- 
ming Valley, close to the scene of its production, by a 
blacksmith, in 1775. In 1778, a nailer in the same place is 
known to have employed it in his factory ; and, twenty years 
after (that is, in 1808), he contrived a grate for burning it 
as fuel in his house. It was not, however, until 1829, that 
any extensive mining operations were commenced at that 
most appropriately named village, Carbondale ; which, about 
1832, began to send regular supplies of coals to Philadel- 
phia. The construction of railroads, the increase of popula- 
tion, and the consequent increase in the price of other 
articles of fuel, soon, however, stimulated the supply of 
coal." * 



* Sir Morton Pcto, 173-175. 



396 



THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 



Bituminous coal first appeared in Philadelphia in 1845; 
and, in 1860, the quantity "raised" in the United States was 
6,218,080 tons. The sources of this supply were as follows : — 



States. 


Tons. 


States. 


Tons. 


Pennsylvania . 


. 2,690,786 


Iowa . 


41,920 


Oluo 


1,26.5,600 


Alabama 


10,200 


Illinois 


728,400 


Washington . 


5,374 


Virginia . 


473,360 


Missouri 


3,880 


Maryland 


438,000 


Rhode Island 


3,800 


Kentucky 


285,765 


Michigan 


2,320 


Tennessee 


165,300 


Georgia 


1,900 


Indiana . 


101,280 


Arkansas 


200 



Now, add to this the amount of anthracite coal from Penn- 
sylvania, — 8,115,842 tons, — and you have the aggregate of 
" coals raised in the United States in 1860, 14,333,992 tons." 

For the sake of comparison, we give the following coal 
produce of the world during the same year, or from the re- 
turns nearest that year : — 



Great Britain 
United States 

Prussia, Saxony, and Hanover 
Belgium .... 
France ..... 
Spain ..... 
Japan, China, Borneo, and Australia 
British Possessions, North America 
Austrian Empire 
Russian Empire 

Grand Total 



Tons. 

71,979,765 
14,333,922 
12,000,000 
8,900,000 
7,900,000 
3,000,000 
2,000,000 
1,500,000 
1,162,900 
1,500,000 

121,000,000 



Of this large amount, 14,333,922 tons from the United 
States must be regarded as a small proportion, especially m 
view of the fiict that our territory includes " nearly three- 
fourths of the coal-areas of the principal coal-producing 
countries of the world." 

It must be considered, however, that our country yet in- 



DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNAL RESOURCES. 397 

eludes immense forests of excellent fuel. Wood is more or 
less available everywhere, and abundant in many portions 
of our States : as this diminishes, and as railways and steam 
navigation increase, facilitating and cheapening the passage 
of freight, our immense and inexhaustible coal-fields will be 
proportionally developed, and this source of wealth largely 
increased. 

Petroleum, or rock-oil, has been known to exist for a long 
period. In Sicily, the Island of Zante, and on the shores of 
the Caspian, on the banks of the Irrawaddy, and in the col- 
ony of Trinidad, this article has been found and used, but 
not in such quantities as to attract general attention. 

In 'America, the most remarkable discoveries have been 
recently made ; and, by American enterprise, it has become 
an article of great commercial importance : while the phe- 
nomena connected with its production are objects of great 
interest, and astonishing even to men of science. 

The Indians are said to have known of rock-oil in Oil- 
creek Valley, and used it for medicinal purposes. An arti- 
cle in "The Massachusetts Magazine," as early as 1791, de- 
scribed the locality, and stated that soldiers collected oil at 
the springs, and found it to be good for rheumatism and a 
gentle purgative. 

But Mr. Patterson of Pennsylvania first converted this 
production to a practical use for lubricating the machinery 
of a cotton-factory in Pittsburg. This was in 1845. Some 
ten years later, the Pennsylvania Rock-oil Company was 
formed in New York, with Professor Silliman at its head. 
The company collected surface-oil only, until 1858, when 
Col. Drake commenced sinking a well. After one failure, 
he " struck oil " at a depth of seventy-one feet. " On the 
tools being withdrawn, oil rose to within five inches of 
the surface. This well yielded at once four hundred, and 
afterwards a thousand, gallons a day." 

Another excitement now came on, equalling, if not ex- 
ceeding, the rage for gold and silver and copper in Califor- 



398 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

nia. Lands in the neighborhood of the Drake Well rose to 
fabulous prices. "Wells were sunk in great numbers. Some 
" prospectors " sunk fortunes in sinking wells ; but others 
rose suddenly from extreme poverty to affluence in a day. 
The first " flowing well " was on the farm of a poor man by 
the name of Funk. Oil was struck in June, 1861 ; and the 
well immediately began to pour out two hundred and fifty 
barrels a day. It flowed on for fifteen months, and then 
ceased. Another, on the Tarr Farm, " yielded two thousand 
barrels daily ; and the Empire Well yielded three thousand 
barrels daily." 

It was now difficult to obtain vessels for the oil, and vast 
quantities flowed away in " Oil Creek." A glut in the mar- 
ket resulted ; but this was temporary. Prospecting went 
on ; new discoveries followed. Towns and cities sprang up 
as if by magic. Flat-boats and various craft went down 
the Alleghany freighted with oil; and the Atlantic and 
Great Western Railway was driven forward with great en- 
ergy to reach the " oil regions," and claim its share in the 
enormous " carrying " profits of this new and wonderful dis- 
covery. 

" Corey," a poor farm, became a central city. In four 
years, it reached some 10,000 inhabitants; had "nearly 
twenty banks, and two newspapers." " The quotations made 
in the oil exchange at Corey, whether of oil, gold, or bread- 
stuffs, influenced Wall Street," and its business rose to some 
$15,000,000 annually. All this in four years. Oil City, 
and especially Pithole, rose to the rank of rivals in excite- 
ment and business. 

Of course, great fluctuation would occur in this novel busi- 
ness. Many would expend thousands, and even millions, 
and fail to find the flowing oil. Some of the most pro- 
ductive wells would become " sullen," irregular, and then 
cease to flow. Thousands would bitterly rue the day when 
they invested their all in oil ; while the sudden affluence of 
others would throw upon the Fifth Avenue and into Sara- 
too-a a new race of aristocrats. 



DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNAL KESOURCES. 399 

The statistics of this trade are yet quite imperfect. Some 
idea of its growing importance may be obtained, however, 
from the exports of a few years. They were as follow : — 

Year. Gallons. 

1862 10,887,701 

1863 28,250,721 

1864 31,792,972 

1865 42,273,508 

The yield of the entire oil-district of Pennsylvania was 
estimated from 80,600 to 90,000 barrels a week ; say 400,000 
barrels per annum. "The quantity forwarded from the 
stations of the Atlantic and Great Western Railway was 533 
barrels in 1863, and 675,028 barrels in 1864." " The aver- 
age prices show a heavy rise, despite the largely-increased 
production : " — 

PETROLEUM IN NEW YORK, PKR GALLON. 



In 1860, Crude, 28 cents. 


. 1864, 


41 cents. 


„ Refined, 28 „ 


,, 


39 „ 


,, ,, in bond, 44 ,, 


,, 


65 „ 


,, ,, free, 51 ,, 


>) 


74 „ 



The supply must be considered inexhaustible; while the 
demand w^ill inevitably increase, adding another source of 
enormous wealth to the people of the United States. 

Iron is an indispensable agent of civilization. To have 
left the territory of the United States destitute of this valu- 
able metal would not agree with the theory of this book, 
that God had predetermined to constitute here a large, free, 
and independent nation. No such strange omission or con- 
tradiction can occur in the divine puposes and action. Who- 
ever from the beii-innino; entertained the true idea of the 
plans of Providence must have expected to find here abun- 
dant supplies of a material without which independence 
would have been quite impossible. 

Iron-ore, fit for all the ordinary uses of industry, and 
capable of being wrought into the finest of steel, is abundant 



400 



THE GREAT EErUBLIC. 



in America. The following table shows the work done in 
the several States during the year 1860 : — 



states. 


Tons ore mined. 


Tons pig iron. 


Value, 


New Hampshire 
Vermont 


1,000-) 
4,500 i 


3,224 


$92,910 


Massachusetts . 


25,000 


13,700 


403,000 


Connecticut 


20,700 


11,000 


379,500 


New York 


176,375 


63,145 


1,385,208 


Pennsylvania . 


1,706,476 


553,560 


11,427,379 


New Jersey- 


57,800 


29,048 


574,820 


Maryland 


79,200 


30,500 


739,600 


Ohio . 


228,794 


94,647 


2,327,261 


Indiana . 




375 


9,375 


Michigan 


17,900 


10,400 


291,400 


Wisconsin 


4,500 


2,000 


40,000 


IMissouri 


. 42,000 


22,000 


575,000 


Kentucky 


73,600 


23,362 


534,164 


Virginia 


23,217 


9,096 


251,173 


Tennessee 


53,220 


18,417 


457,000 


Total . 


2,514,282 


884,474 


$19,487,790 


Product in 1850 . 


)er cent) 


• • 


13,491,898 


Difference (41.4 f 


$5,995,892 



Look at these figures. Here are 884,474 tons of pig-iron 
prepared in a single year, worth $19,487,790. Contrasted 
with the year 1850, it is an advance of nearly $6,000,000. 
" Bar and other rolled iron amounted to 406,298 tons, of the 
value of $22,248,796 ; an increase of 39.5 per cent over the 
united products of the rolling mills and forges, which, in 1850, 
were of the value of $15,938,786. This large production of 
over one and a quarter million of tons of iron, equivalent to 
ninety-two pounds for each inhabitant, speaks volumes for 
the progress of the nation in all its industrial and material 
interests. The manufacture of iron holds relations of the 
most beneficial character to a wide circle of important inter- 
ests, intimately affecting the entire population. The proprie- 
tors and miners of ore, coal, and limestone lands ; the owners 
and improvers of woodlands, of railroads, canals, steamboats, 



DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNAL BESOUECES. 401 

ships, and of every other form of transportation; the pro- 
ducers of food, clothing, and other suppUes; in addition to 
thousands of workmen, merchants, and capitaUsts, and their 
famihes, — have directly participated in the benefits resultint*- 
from this great industry. It has supplied the material for 
an immense number of founderies, and for thousands of 
blacksmiths, machinists, millwrights, and manufacturers of 
nails, hardware, cutlery, edged tools, and other workers in 
metals, whose products are of immense aggregate value, 
and of the first necessity. The production of so large a 
quantity of iron, and particularly of bar-iron, and the 
demand for additional quantities from abroad, tell of the 
progress of the country in civil and naval architecture and 
all the engineering arts ; of the construction of railroads and 
telegraphs, which have spread like a net over the whole 
country; of steam engines and locomotives; of spinning, 
weaving, wood and metal working, milling, mining, and other 
machinery ; and of all the multiform instruments of science, 
agriculture, and the arts, both of peace and of war; of the 
manufacture of every conceivable article of convenience or 
luxury of the household, the field, or the factory." The aggre- 
gate statistics of iron exhibit the extent to which the general 
condition of the people has been improved by this great agent 
of civilization during the ten years embraced in this retrospect. 

" The materials for the manufacture of iron-ore, coal, and 
other fuel, water-power, &c., are so diffused, abundant, and 
cheap, that entire independence of foreign supplies appears 
to be alike desirable and attainable at no distant period ; " 
practicable, we may add, at any time determined by the 
convenience or political economy of the American people. 

Technical chemistry is just beginning to reveal its power 
to enhance the wealth and comfort of our people. Its prod- 
ucts in 1850, exclusive of white lead, ochres, paints, var- 
nish, glue, perfumes, cements, pot and pearl ashes, &c., 
amounted to nearly $5,000,000 ; since which time, this 
practical science has made rapid advances. 

61 



402 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 



Gas manufactured for illumination and other purposes 
amounted, in a single year, to 5,000,000,000 cubic feet, 
worth about $13,000,000. 

Salt was manufactured in 1860 as follows : — 



states. 


Bushels. 


Value. 


Massachusetts 


30,900 


7,874 


New York 


7,521,335 


1,289,511 


Pennsylvania 


604,300 


154,264 


Ohio . 


1,744,240 


276,879 


Virginia 


2,056,513 


478,684 


Kentucky 


69,665 


21,190 


Texas . 


120,000 


29,800 


California 


44,000 


7,100 


Tot 


al . . 12,190,953 


$2,265,302 



In 1850, we employed 340 establishments in the manufac- 
ture of salt, producing $2,177,945 in value of this article, 
indispensable for culinary and other purposes. 

These created supplies are all marvellous, and equally so 
are the exact adjustments of our developing resources to 
the wants of our growing population. Well does Mr. Ken- 
nedy speak of " that beneficent law of compensation which 
pervades the economy of Nature, and, when one provision 
fails for her children, opens to them another in the exhaust- 
less storehouse of her material resources, or leads out their 
mental energies upon new paths of discovery for the supply 
of their own wants. Thus, when mankind was about to 
emerge from the simplicity of the primitive and pastoral 
ages, the more soft and friable metals no longer sufficed for 
the artificer ; and veins of iron-ore revealed their wealth and 
use in the supply of his more artificial wants, and became 
potent agents of his future progress. When the elaboration 
of the metals and other igneous arts were fast sweeping the 
forests from the earth, the exhaustless treasures of fossil-fuel, 
stored for his future use, were disclosed to man ; and, when 
the artificial sources of oil seemed about to fail, a substitute 



DEVELOPMENT OF INTEENAL RESOURCES. 403 

was discovered, flowing in almost perennial fountains from 
the depths of these same carboniferous strata." 

Now, let the reader pause, and inquire, "Whence are 
all these wonderful adaptations, these various elements of 
national prosperity ? Who formed this continent with a 
variety so vast, and materials so rich for the development of 
a great population ? " God, let us reverently answer, formed 
the land, with its immense agricultural resources. He made 
the silver and the gold. His are the cattle upon a thousand 
hills. It would seem that no man could be so much an 
atheist as to deny to Omnipotent Power the glory of this 
splendid creation. Just as unworthy of us would be the 
denial of his omniscient wisdom in the exact adjustment 
of so fine a portion of a large continent to the purposes of 
a great free people ; in the wide and improbable combina- 
tions which brought our ancestors here, and gave them the 
energy to grapple with the formidable difficulties of a new 
country, conquer their liberties, and then turn themselves 
so promptly and vigorously to the avocations of peaceful 
industry ; in the inspirations of genius, seen in their inven- 
tions, the growth of inquiry, with population leading to a 
system of railroads, telegraphs, and internal commerce, so 
vast as to outrun the calculations of enthusiasts, and bewil- 
der the political economists of other nations. Who but God 
could have foreseen the gathering of these thirty-four mil- 
lions here in an era so momentous in the history of the 
race, and provided for it ? made them the representatives 
of principles so vital to the civilization of the world, and 
imbued them with the spirit and energy, the high moral 
qualities, necessary to defend and develop them ? drawn 
attention, at the right time, to the concealed treas- 
ures of a continent, and produced the business energy to 
develop them? We know absolutely that such wisdom 
and power, such combinations and achievements, are not 
the prerogatives of mere man. With what gratitude, there- 
fore, should we ascribe them to Him whose are " the king- 



404 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

dom and the power and the glory for ever" ! How thankfully 
should we acknowledge the Providence which has infused 
into the minds of so large a number of this great nation 
the spirit of true Christian enterprise and Protestant liberty, 
and given to the purest forms of Christianity in the world 
the disposal of all these immense resources ! Surely the 
infidelity which would refuse here to acknowledge and 
reverence the Infinite Being would be most impious, and 
deserving of signal retribution. 



CHAPTER V. 
DEVELOPMENT OF COMMERCE. 

"The consequences will be favorable to all Christendom, to Europe, to the whole 

world." OXENSTIERN. 

The commerce of this country has great providential 
advantages. Our extended coast-Une includes innumerable 
bays, river-entrances, and harbors, so that the shipping of 
the world can reach our Atlantic and Pacific States with the 
greatest convenience. External commerce seems thus to 
have been indicated by the Creator of this continent upon 
a scale of greatness corresponding with the purpose of estab- 
lishing here a large and prosperous nation. God makes 
only what he wants. The exercise of his creative power 
might therefore be studied, with the reasonable hope of 
ascertaining, to a great extent, the plans of his providence. 
True, his acts are largely prospective. For ages, the pur- 
poses of his special creations may remain unavailable and 
unappreciated : they are, however, thus the stronger evi- 
dences of his omniscient control. As the exigencies of a 
nation arise, the urgent demands of progressive civilization 
appear. How instructive and inspiring to find that they 
have been all anticipated by the foresight of the great 
Creator; that He whose wisdom is infinite, even in the 
original formation of a continent, provided amply, and in 
the most minute detail, for every emergency of the coming 
ages ! This must be God. No finite power or wisdom could 
possibly produce such results ; and surely nothing could be 
more grateful to the intelligent mind than the recognition 
of this most important fact. 

405 



406 



THE GEEAT EEPUBLIC. 



VALUE OF EXPORTS. 



It is not much more than two centuries since our exports 
were a small quantity of furs, sassafras, clapboards, and 
wainscoting, and a little corn and tobacco ; hardly enough to 
deserve a name in the commerce of the world, and yet 
enough, as we have seen, to rouse the jealousy of England, 
and secure arbitrary requisitions on the trade of the colonists 
for the support of the crown. 

The following figures will indicate, imperfectly however, 
the development of the country in the materials of trade. 
From 1847 to 18G0, our exports were as follows: — 



From 

The sea . 
The forest 
Agriculture 
Tobacco . 
Cotton 

Manufactures 
Raw produce 
Specie and bullion 



Products of 1847. 

$3,468,033 
5,996,073 

68,450,383 
7,242,086 

53,415,848 

10,476,345 

1,526,076 

62,620 



1850. 

$2,824,818 
7,442,503 

26,547,158 

9,951,023 

112,315,317 

20,136,967 
1,437,680 

18,069,580 



$3,516,894 
12,603,837 
42,567,476 
14,712,468 
88,143,844 
28,833,299 
2,373,317 
53,957,418 



1800. 

$4,156,480 
13,738,559 
48,451,894 
15,906,547 
191,806,5.55 
39,803,080 
2,279,308 
56,946,851 



The increase in national resources and wealth is thus 
shown to be constant and very rapid. The discovery and 
development of the gold-mines in California serve largely to 
explain a remarkable advance in our exports for the year 
1851. They rose from $151,000,000 to $218,000,000. 

In 1862, we supplied foreign countries with American 
products as follows : — 



Great Britain . 
France . 

British North America 
Hamburg and Bremen 
'Spanish West Indies 
British West Indies 
China and Japan 
Brazil . 



$105,898,554 
26,014,181 
18,652,012 
12,672,646 
10,626,642 
6,928,527 
4,328,506 
2,748,249 



DEVELOPMENT OP COMMERCE. 



407 



British East Indies and Australia 






$3,520,663 


Holland and her Possessions 






3,237,022 


Belgium ..... 






3,192,691 


Hayti and St. Domingo . 






3,088,108 


New Granada and Venezuela . 






2,968,871 


British Possessions in the Mediterranean . 






1,859,460 


Mexico ...... 






1,840,720 


Italy 






1,560,361 


Chili 






1,010,051 


Denmark and Danish West Indies 






1,007,667 


Liberia and Ports in Africa 






994,112 


Spain and Canary Islands 






990,449 


Buenos Ayres and Argentine Republic 






974,279 


French West-India Colonies 






924,515 


Portugal and her Colonies 






708,029 


Peru ...... 






571,652 


Sandwich Islands . 








496,983 


Turkey . 








444,397 


Uruguay 








290,259 


Russia . 








153,471 


Central America 








115,640 


Pacific Islands 








100,414 


Sweden and Norway 








78,773 


Austria 








35,615 


Total 








$213,069,519 



When we consider the facts brought forward in this chap- 
ter showing the resources of the American Republic, we 
are impressed with the conviction, that we have but just 
fairly entered upon our great career of commercial pros- 
perity. The increase of our population, and the consequent 
demands for home consumption, can in no way keep pace 
with the rapid development of our agricultural, mineral, and 
mechanical resources. It is fair to conclude, that, as the rate 
of increase in exports has been thus far largely in advance of 
population, our exports are to advance with our increase 
of industrial citizens and the consequent increased develop- 
ment of our resources. To estimate the future, the relations 
of submarine telegraphy and steam navigation to commerce 
must be carefully considered. 



408 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 



IMPORTS AND EXPORTS. 

The laws of exchange must, of course, extend to distant 
continents and islands, and tend strongly to make neighbor- 
hood of nations. In our growing civilization, we must want 
articles produced or manufactured by other people, and they 
must want the productions of our land and industry. Equi- 
table exchange of commodities would hence become desirable. 
This is the great function of external commerce. But even 
a superficial view of such a country as ours would suggest 
the superabundance of the necessary means of life and hap- 
piness, and abundance of many of the luxuries of life, from 
our own soil and mines and handicraft ; and that, though the 
doctrines of " free trade " were to become the law of the 
land, the " balance of trade " ought to be largely in our favor. 
And so it unquestionably would be, were it not for the grow- 
ing follies and prodigality of our people. Preference for 
foreign over American fabrics and wares of equal and even 
superior value, and the extravagance of fashions dictated in 
a foreign capital, discourage home manufactures, and run up 
a heavy account against us in European markets. A protec- 
tive tariff, however high, has thus far shown but little power 
to combat these American vices, and make up the losses 
they produce. Our policy in this respect has not been suf- 
ficiently settled and steady to determine historically the 
results of protection as compared with free trade. 

The following table will be valuable to our readers, as it 
will show the amount of our foreign trade for some seven- 
teen years, and the proportion of imports and exports for 
the same time : — 



Years. 


Imports. 


Exports. 


1844 


$108,435,035 


$111,200,046 


1845 


117,254,564 


114,646,606 


1846 


121,691,797 


113,488,516 


1847 


146,545,638 


158,648,622 


1848 


154,998,928 


154,032,131 



DEVELOPMENT OF COMMERCE. 



409 



Years. 






Imports. 


Exports. 


1849 . . . $147,851,439 


$145,755,820 


1850 






178,138,318 


151,898,720 


1851 






216,224,932 


218,381,011 


1852 






212,945,442 


209,658,366 


1853 






167,978,647 


230,976,157 


1854 






304,562,381 


278,241,064 


1855 






261,468,520 


275,156,846 


1856 






314,639,942 


326,964,908 


1857 






360,890,141 


362,960,682 


1858 






282,613,150 


324,644,421 


1859 






338,765,130 


356,789,462 


1860 






362,163,941 


400,122,296 



It thus appears that our trade with foreign nations ad- 
vanced steadily on the whole, and very nearly quadrupled, 
during this growing period of our history; reaching in a 
single 3^ear the enormous sum of $762,286,237, and showing 
a balance in our favor of $37,958,355. 

Our exports from the products of agriculture are rapidly 
increasing. They reached, in 1861, $101,655,000 ; and in 
1862, $124,561,000. This indicates the future commercial 
greatness of our favored country. The youngest of the 
great nations, we have already outstripped all but one. Great 
Britain alone exceeds us. 

During the late war, the fluctuation in the value of gold 
rendered it difficult to estimate the commerce of the coun- 
try. It is, however, very creditable to our people, that in 
1865 they imported only $234,000,000, saving $128,000,- 
000 as compared with 1860. At the close of the war, trade 
rose again very rapidly: so that, during the fiscal year 
ending June 30, 1866, our exports (specie value) amounted 
to the unprecedented sum of $415,965,459, and our imports 
(specie value) to $423,975,036 ; declared value, $437,640,354. 
The same year we received customs-duties, $179,046,651 ; 
being forty-one per cent of the total imports. It thus ap- 
pears that a protective tariff is convenient as a method of 
adjusting our balance-sheet in trade with nations abroad. 



52 



410 THE GREAT KEPUBLIC. 

INTERNAL COMMERCE. 

Only ii limited view of our commercial activity can be 
obtained from the estimates of our foreign trade. Vast as this 
is, it is very greatly exceeded by the traffic among ourselves. 
The immense extent and variety of our country, with an in- 
dustrious, enterprising population, amounting in the aggre- 
gate to 34,605,882 souls, must produce an internal trade of 
very great magnitude. 

Mr. W. E. Baxter, member of the British Parliament, in 
his book on America says, " It is astonishing to observe the 
vast quantities of produce in course of transit throughout the 
country. Huge steamboats on the Mississippi and the Ala- 
bama are loaded to the water's edge with bales of cotton. 
Those on the Ohio are burdened with barrels of pork, and 
thousands of hams. Propellers on the lakes are filled with 
the finest wheat from Wisconsin and Michigan. Canal-boats 
in New York and Pennsylvania are deeply laden with flour. 
Railroad-wagons are filled with merchandise, and locomo- 
tives struggle in the Western wilds to drag trains richly 
freighted with the productions of every country under the 
sun. The United States reminded me, sometimes, of a great 
ant-hill, where every member of the community is either 
busy carrying a burden along a beaten pathway, or hasten- 
ing away in search of new stores to increase the national 
prosperity." 

In 1860, our internal sail tonnage and our enrolled and 
licensed tonnage reached nearly 3,000,000 tons. " Such an 
amount of tonnage shows an immense internal traffic. If 
we multiply it by ten, we shall not get at more than the 
average result of the deliveries of goods by American ves- 
sels employed in navigation of limited duration and ex- 
tent." * This estimate makes our internal trade between 
our States and Territories, east and west, north and south, 
about equal to that of Great Britain with all her provinces. 

* Sir Morton Pete's Resources of America, p. 224, et seq. 



DEVELOPMENT OF COMMERCE. 41X 

It must be observed that our means of carrying commodi- 
ties for trade among ourselves are very inadequate. The 
business enlarges so rapidly as to make it apparently impos- 
sible to reach the demand by the utmost capacity of our 
vessels, cars, and wagons. Wind and steam and horse- 
power are all in requisition to carry westward " groceries, 
including sugar and salt, dry-goods, hardwares, empty bar- 
rels, machinery and castings, soda, pearl and pot ash, earthern- 
ware, boots, shoes and hats, copper, tin and lead, drugs, medi- 
cines, and dies, furniture and oil-cloth, crockery, green and 
dried fruits, rolled iron, hemp and cordage, brown sheeting 
and bagging, marble, cement, lime and plaster, paper, rags, 
and stationery, oysters, nails and spikes, salted meats and 
fish, tobacco and cigars, and carriages and wagons ; " and 
eastward, " agricultural products, cotton, corn, flour, seeds, 
live stock, butter, cheese, and eggs, poultry, pork, beef, and 
other meats (both fresh and salted), lard and tallow, ma- 
nure, lumber, malt, petroleum, hides, lead, raw tobacco, and 
wool and woollen yarn." There is, moreover, an immense 
trade in staves, of which there were brought into Buffalo 
alone, in 1862, 30,500,000, and lumber amounting to 125,- 
000,000 feet. Ores shipped on Lake Superior the same 
year were worth $4,000,000. " The imports of lake fish at 
Buffalo, in 1860, amounted to 26,655 barrels." Enterprise 
is straining every nerve to provide for this internal carrying- 
trade. From 1850 to 1860, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, 
and Wisconsin extended their railroads from 1,275 miles to 
nearly 10,000 miles ; adding more than 8,000 miles in ten 
years. Corresponding increase is seen in all directions ; and 
yet our thoroughfares are literally choked with freight, the 
product of American lands, ingenuity, and industry. 

A glance at the California trade, via Panama, will help 
the reader to an idea of what is going on in this country ; 
and yet it may be considered impossible fully to grasp and 
comprehend it. We have been at work in earnest on the 
Pacific coast, only since 1849 ; and more than a thousand 



412 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 



vessels annually enter and clear at the port of San Francisco. 
The trade with China, Japan, Europe, and the islands of the 
Pacific, is growing to large proportions ; but the principal 
business is with the old States. The travel and transpor- 
tation over the Isthmus of Panama, in the year ending 30th 
of September, 1862, may be seen in the following figures : — 



Passengers towards the Pacific, 21,456 


Towards Atlantic, 9,706 


Gold 


$4,444,268 


„ $34,605,407 


Silver 




14,286,935 


Jewelry 


$578,062 




American mails 


232,886 lbs. 


31,964 lbs 


English mails 


35,565 „ 


10,127 „ 


Extra baggage , 


345,547 „ 


217,901 „ 


Freight by weight 


54,758,378 „ 


20,061,601 „ 


Freight by measure 


737,684 ft. 


32,279 ft. 



A careful study of this table will show that the passengers 
chiefly go from the Atlantic to the Pacific ; while the gold 
and silver, in much the largest quantities, move from the 
Pacific to the Atlantic coast. Returns from Panama show 
that transactions between the Pacific coast and other parts 
of the United States, in 1862, amouoted to $40,000,000. 

Of course, the war has interfered with the current of trade ; 
but it has opened up new sources of wealth, and stimulated 
the business energy of the people. As the country south 
returns to its industrial pursuits, and the equilibrium of gov- 
ernment is restored, the free action of trade will show a 
large advance beyond the figures we have submitted. There 
will, however, be no change in the argument. I repeat, 
it is not material from what particular period our facts are 
taken ; for the data above are so large as to baffle our com- 
prehension. The inevitable increase of the future can hardly 
add to the strength of our convictions. Already, and every- 
where, the provisions for a vast population, and the devel- 
opment of a great Christian civilization, rise immeasurably 
above all finite power, and reveal the plans and acts of God 
in the constitution and moral purposes of this new creation. 



DEVELOPMENT OF COMMERCE. 413 



SHIPPING. 



It is an obvious suggestion, that a 'commerce so vast must 
require a large amount of shipping. The following facts 
will show this interest as it was in American hands before 
the civil war : The estimate given in the last census shows 
that our tonnage, at the end of the fiscal year 1851, was 
3,772,439 tons. If to this we add the tonnage since built, 
and officially reported as 3,589,200 tons, it will show a total 
of 7,361,639 tons. But our loss in ten years, by decay, 
wreck, and other causes, was 1,821,827 ; leaving, as actually 
reported June 30, 1861, 5,539,812 tons. Of this amount, 
" the State of New York owned 1,740,940 tons, or nearly 
thirty per cent of the whole. During the same fiscal year, 
the tonnage built was 233,194 tons ; of which New York 
built 46,359 tons, or nearly twenty per cent." Maine took 
the lead as a ship-building State ; New York was the second ; 
Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and other States, followed. 

The immense value of this large property in tonnage 
owned by our people in 1861, both as a source of temporary 
profit to the owners and as an active means of extending 
abroad and at home the commerce and manufactures of the 
country, can scarcely be over-estimated. Assuming the aver- 
age value per ton at forty dollars, the worth of this ton- 
nage may be stated at $221,592,480. 

" The superior capacity and very fine character of the 
American merchant-ships will be appreciated by all who 
remember the beautiful class of sailing-vessels which were 
formerly on the New- York and Liverpool stations as what 
were called liners. Those vessels were the very best ves- 
sels of their class, and they no doubt acquired wide celebrity 
for American shipping." "The fame of these celebrated 
vessels has enabled the Americans not only to possess them- 
selves of the largest proportion of the emigration-trade, but 
also to lay on lines of packets between Havre, Marseilles, 
Hamburg, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, Panama, the West Indies, 



414 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

and various parts both of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans." 
This compUment from an intelligent Englishman (Sir Morton 
Peto), fine as it is, only partly indicates the facts as they 
were, and may yet be again under a wise and paternal 
policy upon the part of the government. 

It is, however, matter of profound regret that the course 
of certain Englishmen and the British Government made 
our valuable merchant-marine the prey of pirates under the 
rebel flag, and nearly swept American vessels from the seas. 
The effect has been a severe depression of the business 
of ship-building, and the transfer of a vast proportion of the 
American carrying-trade to English bottoms. The high 
prices of materials and labor, and the taxation resulting 
from the war, render it impossible for the American ship- 
builders and merchants to reclaim these lucrative occupa- 
tions, and restore our commerce to its legitimate channels. 
The solution of this problem is yet to come from the fruitful 
resources of the American mind. 

The business of the United States upon the ocean, large 
as it has been, is destined to extend itself to such propor- 
tions as to place the Great Republic, at no distant day, at the 
head of commercial nations. Her merchant-marine, under 
the direction of sound political economy and the protection 
of her powerful navy, is destined to be still more in the 
future than in the past the admiration of the world. 



CHAPTER VI. 

DEVELOPMENT OF THE WAR-POWER. 

" I was born among the hardy sons of the ocean, and I cannot so doubt their courage 
or their skill. If Great Britain ever obtains possession of our present little navy, it will 
be at the expense of the best blood of the country, and after a struggle which will call for 
more of her strength than she has ever found necessary for a European enemy." — Story. 

War is a great evil, a crime, indeed, when it assumes 
the form of aggression upon the rights or safety of a nation ; 
but force in defence of the rio;ht against force in the wrong 
is an absolute necessity and a high moral right. In watch- 
ing the progress of a country, it is therefore indispensable to 
mark the development of its power to defend itself and 
enforce its just demands. The war of 1812 sufficiently 
tested this question. 

It was to be expected that the wars of Napoleon with 
England and nearly the whole of Europe would, in some 
way, involve the United States. Our commercial relations 
were extensive; and t^ie " orders in council " of Great Britain, 
and the famous Berlin, Milan, and Bayonne decrees by 
Napoleon, mutually retaliatory, and designed to cripple 
each other, had the effect of despotic assaults upon the 
international rights of neutrals, and wfere exceedingly dis- 
astrous to the commerce of the United States. The em- 
bargo, the non-intercourse and non-importation acts of Con- 
gress, were intended for self-defence ; but the tendency of 
the whole was to compel the Republic to choose between the 
two great belligerents, or to come into collision with both. 

The Republicans, under the lead of Jefferson, were exceed- 
ingly hostile to England, but inclined to favor France. The 

415 



416 THE GREAT KEPUBLIC. 

Federalists were opposed to war, especially with England. 
The election of Madison to the high office of President was 
a triumph of the Kepublican, or new Democratic party, and 
a precursor of war. The judgment of Mr. Madison was 
against it ; but influenced, it was alleged, by the hope of a 
second term, he was carried foward by the current, and be- 
came gravely responsible for the final decision. 



SELF-RESPECT OF THE NATION. 

No sovereign power can with safety allow the violation 
of its flag. The redress may not be in open hostihties; 
prudence may require delays : but remonstrance and ener- 
getic protests at least should show that the government 
understands its rights, and will protect its citizens. 

Our merchantmen, denied the freedom of the ocean, for- 
bidden on the one hand to carry English goods to any 
European port, and, on the other, to carry goods of any 
description which had not been examined in England, 
were sure to be victimized by the French or the English. 
The British insisted on the right of forcible search for 
articles contraband of war; which was, of course, a high 
indignity to free Americans upon the seas. Under pretence 
of some violation of " orders in council," — which orders 
America held to be in violation of international law, and 
therefore not binding, — our merchantmen were seized, and 
the rights of property sacrificed. 

The true remedy was, no doubt, a very difficult question. 
The United States could not venture, unprepared, to declare 
war ; and the contest between parties rendered any decision 
doubtful in policy at home and in effect abroad. The expe- 
dient of an embargo on foreign vessels seemed to be natural, 
but it was destructive to our own trade ; and, as it aided 
Napoleon in his attempts to destroy the commerce of Great 
Britain, it was tolerated by France, and regarded as virtually 
hostile to England. The purposes of the embargo were, to a 



DEVELOPMEXT OF THE WAR-POWEE. 4X7 

large extent, impracticable, as our navy was not capable of 
enforcing it, and the administration shrank from the responsi- 
bilities of war. But the self-respect of the nation rose with 
the increase of dangers ; and more stringent enforcement acts 
were passed, which made our own merchants cry out in dis- 
tress, but which indicated the purpose of the government to 
compel England at least to respect our flag. It seemed a 
severe deprivation to the American people ; but Congress 
passed the non-intercourse and non-importation acts, which, 
so far as it was possible to enforce them, would deny to 
those who refused our rights on the seas and in foreign ports 
the benefits of American markets, and, distressing as it was, 
began a new era in the development of home resources and 
the protection of home industry. 

There was another grievous wrong in the pretensions of 
England. She denied to her citizens the right of expatria- 
tion. She claimed the right of impressing into the British 
service all English-born subjects, wherever found. To en- 
force this claim, also, she assumed the right of search ; and 
for this purpose, our ships, dominated by British guns, were 
arrested on the high seas ; and, with no carefal discrimination 
as to the real citizenship of the men, they were taken vio- 
lently from under our flag, and consigned to an odious war- 
service or to loathsome prisons. That so gross an outrage 
would be long endured by a people of courage and spirit 
could not be reasonably expected, and great eflbrts at some 
accommodation were made by England. She was by no 
means anxious for an additional war. 

A large number of impressed sailors in the British navy 
claimed to be American citizens, and the right of England 
to coerce them was assumed ; while they must prove that 
they were American citizens, or suffer the penalties due to 
deserters from his Majesty's service. When the war com- 
menced, twenty-five hundred of these men affirmed their 
American rights, and, refusing to fight against their country, 
" were committed to Dartmoor and other prisons." The 



418 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

Britisli Government alleged as an excuse for this enormous 
wrong, that, if they did not compel the services of these 
men, half their naval force might set up the claim to be 
American citizens. This, while it is a fallacy that would 
excuse any acts of aggression and injustice whatsoever 
against other nations, was, to say the least, a poor compli- 
ment to British patriotism. The Americans expressed no 
fears of this kind with regard to their citizen soldiers or 
sailors. 

There was, obviously, but one alternative, — England must 
repeal her " orders in council," and desist from her insults to 
the flag of the United States by her forcible search for goods 
contraband of war and the impressment of seamen, or she 
must accept war. The former she declined to do ; the latter 
she dreaded : she would therefore negotiate. 

Lord Erskine was well disposed toward America. He 
agreed with our representative here upon a treaty which 
would have averted the war ; but, when it was sent home 
for confirmation, Canning rejected it. This was matter of 
severe mortification to the president, and the greatest annoy- 
ance to the people : for the administration had relaxed the 
stringency of retaliatory measures ; and the people, for a 
brief time, rejoiced in the opening prospects of commerce, 
and relief from the perils of war. There seemed, however, 
now no way to avoid the dreaded conflict; and war was 
declared by Congress on the 18th of June, 1812. 

With an army numbering on paper 30,700, but an actual 
force of only 10,000 men, half of whom were raw recruits, 
we were now at war with a powerful nation. On the water, 
"we had three first-class frigates, ' The President,' 'The Consti- 
tution,' and 'The United States;' 'The Congress' and 'Essex,' 
frigates of the second class ; ' The John Adams,' which was 
soon laid up as unfit to cruise ; 'The Wasp' and 'The Hornet,' 
sloops-of-war; 'The Argus,' ' Siren,' 'Nautilus,' 'Enterprise,' 
and 'Vixen,' brigs. Three second-class frigates, 'The Chesa- 
peake,' ' Constellation,' and ' John Adams,' were undergoing 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE WAR-POWER. 419 

repairs. These, with a hundred and seventy gimboats, and 
three old frigates too rotten to be repaired, constituted the 
entire American navy." * 

Our population, however, had largely increased. The third 
census (1810) showed that the United States numbered 
5,862,093 free whites; 1,191,364 slaves ; all others, 186,446 ; 
making a population of 7,239,903 souls. We had, in effect, 
therefore, more than twice the strength of the nation in oui- 
Revolutionary struggle with Great Britain ; and our antago- 
nist, worried by her death-struggles with Napoleon, was still 
fighting for supremacy on the Continent, and the suppression 
of what she deemed a colossal and destructive revolutionary 
power. 

SANDWICH AND QUEENSTOWN. 

Henry Dearborn was appointed first major-general, with 
command of the Northern Department. Hull, Governor of 
Michigan Territory, was made a brigadier-general, and with 
some eighteen hundred men, the militia of his own Territory 
included, undertook the conquest of Canada, a territory then 
including, in the Upper and Lower Provinces, some four hun- 
dred thousand people. It was very discouraging that his ves- 
sel of supplies was overhauled and captured at Fort Amherst- 
burg. He, however, moved on as far as Sandwich. In the 
absence of Mc Arthur's detachment, he now numbered some 
eight hundred men. He was about to be attacked by Brock 
with seven hundred and thirty regulars and militia, and six 
hundred Indians under the renowned Tecumseh. " Thouo-h 
he at first refused," he at length responded to a challenge to 
surrender, thus saving " the effusion of blood ; " and as a mat- 
ter of prudence, if not necessity, included McArthur's com- 
mand among the prisoners of war handed over to the British. 
This, it must be confessed, was not a very encouraging com- 
mencement of the war. 

About the 9th of October, Commodore Elliot, taking com- 

* Ilildreth, 2d Series, iii. 364, 365. 



420 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

mand on Lake Erie, succeeded in cutting out"The Adams" and 
" The Caledonia " from under the guns of Fort Erie. This 
brought up the spirits of the troops along the frontier, and they 
were anxious to make another attack upon Canada. Gen. Van 
Rensselaer determined to gratify them, and selected Queens- 
town as the point of attack. Every movement, however, 
showed a want of preparation for the brave attempt. As the 
supply of boats was entirely inadequate, he could only pass 
over two or three hundred men, who were exposed to a 
galling fire from a battery sweeping the river and the 
American shore. Col. Van Rensselaer, a relative of the 
general, soon fell, severely wounded ; but he gave orders to 
storm the battery, which was promptly and gallantly done by 
Capt. Ogilvie and Capt. Wool, and the British were driven 
into a stone house. Gen. Brock, who came up hastily, 
was slain. While the enemy held the stone house, and 
annoyed our little army with a musketry-fire, some five or 
six hundred more Americans, with a single piece of artillery, 
got across the river. For the want of tools, no intrench- 
ments were attempted. 

In the mean time, a body of Indians rushed out from the 
woods, and assailed a straggling bod}' of militia, w^io fled 
before them, producing a serious panic in the American 
forces ; but our citizen-soldiers were brave, and, as they 
alw\ays have done, began on the battle-field to learn how 
to fight. Lieut.-Col. Scott, who had crossed as a volunteer, 
put himself at the head of a few regulars, and promptly re- 
pulsed the Indians. 

The British general, Sheafe, now advanced from Fort 
George ; and the sound of his musketry alarmed the militia 
on the American side, and they denied the right of their 
commanders to lead them into Canada. Our forces, eno-aoced 
in attempting to fall back to the river, were thrown into 
confusion, and compelled to surrender. 

We had lost in this ill-managed affair, in killed, wound- 
ed, and prisoners, a thousand men; the British, al)out a 
hundred. 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE WAR-POWER. 421 

Neither party seemed anxious to go on with the war. 
Negotiations for peace were attempted, it must be admitted, in 
good faith. The British " orders in council " had been quietly 
repealed ; but their obstinate adherence to the right of search, 
and the impressment of seamen taken violently from under 
our flag, rendered all negotiations fruitless. Nothing could 
be uiore aggravating to a free and honorable nation. " Up- 
wards of six thousand cases of alleged impressments were 
recorded in the Department of State ; and it was estimated 
that at least as many more might have occurred of which no 
information had been received. Castlereagh himself admitted, 
on the floor of the House of Commons, that an inquiry insti- 
tuted early in the preceding year had discovered in the 
British fleet thirty-five hundred men claiming to be impressed 
Americans." * Federalists, as well as Democrats, felt the 
galling effects of this bitter wrong ; and the war-spirit rose in 
the Kepublic, though, as a nation, we were never united in 
the war. 

NAVAL ENGAGEMENTS. 

Commodore Rogers had collected in the harbor of New 
York as many vessels of our little navy as possible, and, upon 
the declaration of war, moved out promptly to sea. "The 
Constitution," Capt. Hull, attempting to join Rogers, fell in 
with the British squadron, and, after a desperate race of 
four days, escaped into Boston. Without waiting for orders, 
he at once put to sea, making a fearless cruise in search of 
the Jamaica fleet. Not meeting with any adventure equal 
to his ambition, he returned ; and, cruising in the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence, he spied "The Guerriere," an English war- 
frigate, Capt. Dacres. The prospect of an engagement was 
immediately clouded by the appearance of three other hos- 
tile ships and a brig. A chase soon began, — one of the most 
exciting and remarkable in history. Capt. Hull found him- 
self in the midst of the squadron of Commodore Broke, 

* Hildreth, 2d Series, iii. 349. 



422 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

with three sail on his starboard quarter, and three more 
astern. It was not a question whether " The Constitution " 
alone could fight the whole British squadron, but whether 
her commander and men had skill and energy enough to 
baffle all the efforts of the British squadron to bring on an 
engagement. This desperate nautical contest commenced 
on Friday, July 17 ; and at length, after exhausting all the 
skill and power at their command, " the English ships all 
hauled to the northward and eastward, fully satisfied, by a 
trial that had lasted nearly three days and as many nights, 
under all the circumstances that can attend naval manoeu- 
vres, from reefed topsail to kedging, that they had no hope of 
overtaking their enemy." '* 

" The Constitution," after a daring cruise, which showed 
that she was neither worried nor intimidated, went into port 
to prepare for further adventures. 

In the mean time, " The Essex," Capt. Porter, soon after the 
departure of Rogers, got to sea, and took valuable prizes 
almost at her leisure. Amono; them was the friafate 
" Minerva," thirty-six guns, conveying a large number of 
British troops, about a hundred and fifty of whom were 
made prisoners. 

" A few days after this success, ' The Essex ' made a 
strange sail to windward." As she was disguised as a mer- 
chantman, the stranger bore down upon her fearlessly, and 
opened fire ; when suddenly " The Essex " " knocked out 
her ports, and opened upon the enemy." Surprised and 
panic-stricken, the Englishmen " left their quarters, and ran 
below." Capt. Porter took easy possession of his prize, 
which proved to be " his Majesty's ship ' Alert,' Capt. 
Langham, mounting twenty eighteen-pound cannon, and 
with a full crew." 

Let us now return to " The Constitution." She had gained 
a world-wide reputation for the naval skill of her commander 
and men in avoiding an unequal combat with a whole Brit- 

* Cooper's Naval History of the United States, p. 256. 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE WAR-POWER. 423 

ish squadron. She was restless for a figlit with some worthy 
antagonist, with a fair chance to test her prowess in battle. 
For tliis she did not have to wait long. She fell in with a 
daring craft, evidently searching for her. Both parties pre- 
pared for action. Firing a few guns as they approached, 
and moving dexterously to prevent being raked, they seemed 
willing to fight at close quarters. 

" At six o'clock, the enemy bore up, and ran off under his 
three topsails and jib, with the wind on his quarter. As 
this was an indication of a readiness to receive his antago- 
nist in a fair yard-arm and yard-arm fight, ' The Constitu- 
tion ' immediately set her maintop-gallant-sail and foresail 
to get alongside. At a little after six o'clock, the bows of the 
American frigate began to double on the quarter of the 
English ship ; when she opened with her forward guns, draw- 
ing slowly ahead with her greater way, both vessels keeping 
up a close and heavy fire as their guns bore. In about ten 
minutes, or just as the ships were fairly side by side, the 
raizzen-mast of the Englishman was shot away ; when the 
American passed slowly ahead, keeping up a tremendous 
fire and luffed short round the bows of the enemy to pre- 
vent being raked. In executing this manoeuvre, the ship 
shot into the wind, got sternway, and fell foul of her antago- 
nist. While in this situation, the cabin of ' The Constitution * 
took fire from the close explosion of the forward guns of 
the enemy, who obtained a small but momentary advantage 
from his position. The good conduct of Mr. Hoffman, who 
commanded in the cabin, soon repaired this accident ; and a 
gun of the enemy's, that threatened further injury, was dis- 
abled. As the vessels touched, both parties prepared to 
board. The English turned all hands up from below, and 
mustered forward with that object ; while Mr. Morris, the 
first lieutenant, with his own hands endeavored to lash the 
ships together. Mr. Alwyn, the master, and Mr. Bush, 
the lieutenant of the marines, were upon the taffrail of 
' The Constitution ' to be ready to spring. Both sides now 



424 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

suffered by the closeness of the musketry ; the English 
much the most, however. Mr. Morris was shot through the 
body, the bullet fortunately missing the vitals ; Mr. Alwyn 
was wounded in the shoulder; and Mr. Bush fell by a bullet 
through the head. It being found impossible for either 
party to board in the face of such a fire, and with the heavy 
sea that was on, the sails were filled ; and, just as ' The Con- 
stitution' shot ahead, the foremast of the enemy fell, carry- 
ing: down with it his mainmast, and leaviuijj him wallowing; 
in the trough of the sea a helpless wreck." * 

Re-adjusting his ship, and taking a raking position, Capt. 
Hull saw the English Jack hauled down from the stump of 
the mizzen-mast, and the great battle was over. His prize 
was " The Guerriere," Capt. Dacres, one of his most persistent 
antagonists in the remarkable contest of naval skill, so re- 
cently terminating in one of our greatest naval triumphs. 

" The Constitution " was soon refitted, and ready for sea ; 
while " ' The Guerriere ' was completely dismasted, had 
seventy-nine killed and wounded, and, according to the 
statement of her commander in his defence before the court 
which tried him for the loss of his ship, she had received no 
less than thirty shot as low as five sheets of copper beneath 
the bends." All this had occurred within two hours, the 
whole period of the engagement; and the most destructive 
execution must have been within thirty minutes. 

It is vain, at this distance of time, to attempt to describe 
the joy of the American people as the news of this great 
naval triumph flew over the land. It was hailed as decisive 
evidence that the boasted superiority of the British on the 
seas was at an end. 

This impression was deepened by the grand victory of 
Commodore Decatur, in " The United States," over " The 
Macedonian," thirty-eight guns, Capt. Garden, after a most 
desperate engagement, in which " The Macedonian," a beauti- 
ful ship with forty-nine guns, was almost literally cut to 

* Cooper's Naval History of the United States, pp. 258, 259. 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE WAE-rOWER. 425 

pieces. The terrific conflict in which " The Wasp," Capt. 
Jones, triumphed over and captured '-The FroHc," Capt. 
Whinvates, heiij-htened the enthusiasm of the American 
people, and produced most important moral effects bearing 
upon the historical power of the two nations. 

Our first naval defeat was on the first day of June, 1813, 
when " The Chesapeake " was captured by " The Shannon," 
after a most heroic struggle on both sides. 

Subsequent engagements were numerous, great gallantry 
being displayed on both sides, the results varying, but, 
upon the whole, very clearly vindicating the prophetic 
judgment of Storj', placed at the head of this chapter. 

CAMPAIGNS FROM THE WEST AND EAST. 

Harrison, rallying troops for the defence of Indiana with- 
out regard to form, was made a brevet major-general of 
Kentucky. On his way to the scene of action, information 
reached him from Washington that Winchester had been 
placed in command ; while he, with the rank of a brigadier- 
general, was to defend Indiana and Illinois. The West, 
however, already beginning to be a power in the nation, 
demanded and secured the appointment of Harrison to the 
chief command of the Western army, now raised to the 
nominal force of ten thousand men. 

Harrison was brave and active. He determined to destroy 
some hostile Indian settlements, and then by a bold dash, if 
possible, recover Detroit. But the crude masses of volun- 
teers under his command, not having yet learned to obey, 
were not an army ; and his plans were frustrated. Capt. 
Taylor now appears, foiling with skill and bravery the attack 
of the Indians upon Fort Harrison, on the Wabash. It is 
interesting to see these two future presidents in their young 
manhood thus gallantly coming into the field together. 
They were both to display great generalship, endure severe 
trials, rise high in popular favor, be exalted to the first place 

5i 



426 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

of distinction in the Republic, if not in the world, and both 
.to fall by death soon after their respective inaugurations. 

Gen. Dearborn attempted a demonstration in the direction 
of Montreal, which evidently, for want of capacity in the 
commander, became a disastrous failure. Smyth, after his 
valorous and "grandiloquent proclamations," made another 
diso-raceful failure on the Niai>:ara frontier. 

In the winter of 1813, Harrison made his second attempt 
to reach Detroit. As a preliminary measure, Winchester 
was ordered to occupy the Rapids. He reached this objec- 
tive point without casualty, and was immediately drawn into 
an attempt to relieve Frenchtown, where our little army was 
attacked by Proctor from Maiden. Winchester was taken 
prisoner, and induced to surrender his command. The bar- 
barous treatment of the prisoners from the British and their 
Indian allies disgraced their victory. The advancing troops 
of Harrison met the fugitives from Frenchtown ; and, pru- 
dently abandoning his plan of attacking Maiden, he was 
compelled to content himself for the present by fortifying 
the Rapids, named, for the governor of Ohio, Fort Meigs. 
As an evidence, however, of the confidence of the govern- 
ment, he was soon raised to the rank of major-general. 

Jackson now appears in the South, taking the responsibility 
of disobeying orders, that he might perform a great act of 
humanity in marching his men four hundred and sixty miles 
back to Nashville and disbandinoj them near their homes. 
Wilkinson had contrived, w^ithout bloodshed, to get possession 
of the fort at Mobile ; the only " victory " on land we have 
been permitted to record since the success of Capt. Taylor 
at Fort Harrison. 

In the summer of 1813, the gallant Perry moved the 
small nucleus of his fleet out into Lake Erie. With nine ves- 
sels and fifty-five guns, he confronted the British squadron, 
commanded by Capt. Barclay, with six vessels and sixty- 
three guns. Having a hundred and fifty of Harrison's 
men on board, he aimed to reach and assault the fort at Mai- 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE WAR-POWER. 427 

den. The two fleets met ; and, after a desperate engagement 
of three hours, every ship of the British squadron struck to 
the victorious Perry. He now promptly converted such of 
his prizes as were manageable into transports, and conveyed 
Harrison's troops across the lake. Proctor, consulting his 
prudence, burned the fort at Maiden, and commenced his 
retreat. Harrison was once more on his way to Detroit. In 
two days he overtook Proctor's rear, and captured all his 
stores and ammunition. The main body of the British, some 
eight hundred in number, were drawn up in order of battle 
" near the Moravian town," with Tecumseh and his Indians 
on the right in a swamp. Johnson with his mounted men 
rushed upon them with such fury, that they were completely 
overpowered, threw down their arms, and surrendered. 
" Proctor and his suite, with some two hundred men, escaped 
by timely flight." * The Indians fought desperately; but the 
renowned Tecumseh was slain, probably by Johnson's own 
hand, and his braves were killed or dispersed. 

It was now the spring of 1814 ; and the war party in Eng- 
land rose in spirits as the British had triumphed over the 
great Napoleon, and they demanded the exemplary chastise- 
ment of the democrats of America. The veterans of the 
English army were to be brought over for this purpose. 

Brown, now a major-general, was a man of courage ; and 
Scott, now a brigadier, stood by his side, burning with desire 
to prove that the Americans were competent to resist and 
conquer the British regulars. They obtained permission to 
attempt another invasion of Canada. This expedition re- 
sulted in the severe battle of Bridgewater, or Lundy's Lane. 
Crossing the lake from Buftiilo on the 2d of July, our army 
of about three thousand five hundred men had the good for- 
tune to receive the surrender of Fort Erie. Scott advanced 
with intrepidity to attack the British under Riall ; and a 
smart but brief engagement drove the enemy from his in- 
trenchments, from Chippewa, and from Queenstown, with the 

* Hildreth, 2d Series, iii. 437, 438. 



428 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

loss of some five hundred men, while the loss of the Ameri- 
cans was about three hundred. Fort George, however, still 
manned by the British, was promptly re-enforced; and both 
parties prepared for a severe conflict. 

On the 25th of July, Scott, with a thousand men, fear- 
lessly advanced, and suddenly encountered the whole of 
RiaU's army. In a brief time, near a third of Scott's force 
had fallen before the terrific fire of the enemy. Scott, how- 
ever, again and again rallied his men to the onset. By his 
orders. Major Jessup reached the enemy's rear, and pressed 
him severely, making many prisoners ; among them Gen. 
Biall, retiring, severely wounded, from the front. " Brown 
now came up with Ripley's brigade, which was ordered 
between Scott and the enemy." The British park of artil- 
lery, raised to nine pieces, was the key of his position ; and 
Col. James Miller was ordered to storm it, which he did in 
gallant style, driving the artillery-men from their guns at 
the point of the bayonet. Ripley brought up the Twenty- 
third, and secured the guns. Porter's volunteers promptly 
supported him on the right; and Jessup soon reached the 
front, routing a British brigade on his way. 

The eneni)', now re-enforced by Drummond, made a des- 
perate effort in the darkness of the night to recover their 
guns. The Americans, however, w^ere on their guard ; and, 
after three terrific assaults, the British recoiled from their 
fire and bayonets, and retired from the field of slaughter. 

Brown and Scott, severely wounded, were compelled to 
retire, leaving all the regimental officers wounded, and seven 
hundred and forty-three men dead or wounded. The loss 
of the British was eight hundred and seventy-eight. The 
Americans had at length risen to the greatness of the emer- 
gency. They had fought a desperate battle, and gained a 
decisive victory ; but, for the w^ant of horses, the}^ could 
not take away their trophies, and retired, under command of 
Ripley, to care for their wounded. The British, unopposed, 
returned to the battle-ground, and reclaimed their guns. 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE WAR-rOWEK. 429 



WASHINGTON AND BALTIMORE. 

About the middle of August, " a new and large British 
fleet," commanded by Cockburn, appeared in the Chesapeake, 
bearino- four thousand of Wellino-ton's veterans under Ross. 

President Madison at length began to realize the danger, 
and to show an utter incapacity to make provisions against 
it. Gov. Winder of Maryland made the best dispositions in 
his power for the defence of his State, and especially of Balti- 
more. But, by the 20th, the Potomac was blockaded, and the 
main fleet had ascended the Patuxent as far as Benedict, 
and landed Ross, with forty-five hundred men, within fifty 
miles of Washington. Without horses, these indefatigable 
soldiers and sailors marched through the heat, which was 
to them almost insufferable, dragging three pieces of light- 
artillery, and carrying munitions of war. On this dreadfid 
march, exhausted and encumbered as they were, they might, 
it would seem, have been cut to pieces without difficulty ; but, 
quite unopposed, they reached Bladensburg on the 24th, in 
no condition to commence an engagement. At that instant, 
the Americans should have made tlie attack with vigor, and 
by sudden victory saved their capital and the honor of the 
nation. Yie cannot avoid thinking, that if Brown and Scott 
with the men of Landy's Lane, or Jackson from New Orleans, 
had been in command, this would have been done; but the 
president and other civilians and amateur warriors were 
tliere to distract the counsels of Winder and his officers, and 
communicate their fears to the men. 

In the mean time, the British, ready to sink from fatigue, 
were led on to the attack : the battle of Bladensburg was lost, 
and the veterans of Wellington marched into Washington. 
The Capitol, the President's House, and all the public build- 
ino-s but the Patent and General Post Offices, were committed 
to the flames. Valuable papers and the public library were 
consumed, — a piece of Vandalism which nothing in civilized 
warfare could excuse. 



430 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

It would seem that Providence had now placed the Repub- 
lic at the disposal of England. But strange events indicated 
an opposite result. A tremendous tornado came on, add- 
ing to the horrors of war, and seeming to threaten the 
Capitol with completed destruction. The British column 
about to fire the only remaining government building, 
alarmed at the gathering forces of Nature, now marshalled by 
God himself as if to do a work which the confused army had 
failed to do, fled to the nearest edifices for protection, many 
of which were dashed to the ground by the fury of the storm, 
burying numbers of men amid their ruins. Then an explo- 
sion at Greenleaf 's Point, more likely providential than acci- 
dental, killed or wounded nearly a hundred more of these 
grim, fearless warriors: and the exaggerated fears of the 
British commander assumed that a formidable "army of 
indignant citizen-soldiers were mustering on the Heights of 
Georgetown," and large forces were gathering from the 
South, to overwhelm him before he could escape their just 
vengeance ; and he hastened his men toward their ships at 
Benedict, where he embarked with the satisfaction of a 
retreating enemy rescued from imminent perils, when, in 
point of fact, there had been no army on his track ; and 
it was twenty-four hours before the frightened Americans 
could gather courage enough to venture on to Capitol Hill, 
and disarm some sixty British invalids left in care of the 
wounded. 

God, no doubt for purposes of discipline, suffered this ex- 
treme mortification to a proud, presumptuous people, and 
then directly interfered to prevent a subjugation which 
would have endangered his own purposes. 

In less than two weeks, the British fleet came up the 
Chesapeake, landed their army at North Point, and made a 
bold combined attack upon Baltimore ; expecting, doubtless, 
no more formidable obstacles in the way of its intended 
destruction than they had found in approaching the doomed 
capital. But from the indications at Washington in the 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE WAE-POWER. 431 

midst of the conflagration, and the prompt action of good 
sense and courage, arraying ten thousand men for the de- 
fence of Baltimore, it was evident God had at leno^th said to 
these hitherto invincible men, " Thus far, and no farther." 
A severe engagement and a brave defence, in which the 
British Gen. Ross was slain, soon resulted in the retreat of the 
British army. Taking advantage of rain and darkness, the}-- 
re-embarked, and left the Baltimoreans to their triumphs. 
"The Star-spangled Banner," written by Key on board a 
British ship, where he was forcibly detained during the 
action, commemorates in fitting strains the rising heroism of 
America represented on the bloody field of Baltimore. 



PLATTSEURG. 

We may now again turn our eyes to the North. Other 
veterans from the wars with Napoleon came to join in 
the conquest of America. Prevost, on the 1st of Septem- 
ber, advanced upon Plattsburg with ten thousand men. 
McDonough's squadron had providentially just anchored in 
Plattsburg Bay. Macomb with three thousand men, includ- 
ing many invalids, had been left in command of the town. 
Volunteers from New York and Vermont, to the number of 
three thousand, now came at his call to join his little army ; 
but what could be the hope of resistance to the formidable 
force which Prevost led up to the attack ? Nothing, unless 
God should interfere. Prevost menaced Macomb in front, but 
sent a strong force to ford the river above. Now, while they 
are searching for the ford, let us turn our eyes to the lake. 

" The British fleet, commanded by Commodore Downie, 
consisted of a new ship of thirty-seven guns, a new brig of 
sixteen, the two sloops captured from the Americans the 
year before, and mounting eleven guns each, besides twelve 
gunljoats, — ninety-five heavy guns to the whole squadron, 
which was manned by a thousand seamen from Quebec." * 

* Ilililreth, 2d Series, iii. .518, ,519, rf sr.q. 



432 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

McDonoiigli's squadron consisted of " The Siiratoga," twenty- 
six guns, the brig "Eagle," twenty guns, the schooner 
" Ticonderoga," seventeen guns, the schooner " Preble," seven 
guns, and ten gunboats. With his largest vessels, he lay 
directly across the harbor, his gunboats forming a second 
line against the intervals between the ships. Downie was 
thus obliged to attack " bows on, which he did gallantlj^, 
reserving his fire till he came to close action." His largest 
vessel was soon crippled, and hastily anchored beyond the 
reach of harm. A "British sloop standing on to gain a 
raking position was so disabled, that she drifted down on the 
z\merican line, and was taken." Another, driven from her 
berth, drifted ashore. The American schooner " Preble " was 
then driven from her anchorage, and " The Ticonderoga " 
was vigorously attacked and completely disabled on one 
.side ; but McDonough, by " winding," brought the other side 
to bear. Downie, attempting to imitate him, fliiled ; and 
after a brave action, lasting two hours and a half, the British 
flag was lowered. The victory was complete. Prevost, 
hearing of this result, abandoned his search for the ford, and 
retreated with his army of veterans in a panic, leaving his 
wounded and much of his baggage and stores behind. 

In the mean time, Brown, shut up in Fort Erie, had sent 
nressinsT messaixes to Izard for re-enforcements. Takinu; a 

loo o 

strong force, and leaving the glory of defending Plattsburg 
to Macomb, he marched oiT toward the Niagara frontier. 
Before he reached Fort Erie, however, the lion-hearted Brown 
had determined upon a sortie. Issuing at mid-day with his 
chosen men, he " surprised the British batteries some two 
miles in advance of their camp, exploded their magazines, 
and spiked their guns ; took some four hundred prisoners ; 
and skilfully retired, having inflicted upon the enemy a loss 
of nearly a thousand men. Drummond, as soon as he could 
move, raised the siege, and retired behind the Chippewa." * 

* IlUdreth, 2d Series, iii. 520, 521. 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE WAR-POWER. 433 

NEW ORLEANS. 

The indomitable Jackson had taken the responsibility to 
resist an attack of the British on Fort Bowyer, in which they 
were aided by the Spanish and Indians. This was a ma- 
terial point, as its capture would not only open a harbor to 
the French privateersmen from Barataria Bay, but it would 
give the British a fair opportunity to approach New Orleans. 
Jackson rallied the militia, and, without regard to men or 
money, poured a destructive fire into the British squadron, 
burned up their best ship, " The Hermes," and sent the whole 
fleet away in haste, with the loss of two hundred and thirty- 
two men. Lafitte, the leader of the buccaneers, rejected 
with disdain the offer of an honorable rank for himself and 
his outlaws in the British army ; and, shrewdly conducting 
his intrigues, gave himself, with all his valuable information, 
to the Americans. This enabled them to set forward an 
expedition from New Orleans, under Commodore Patterson, 
for an attack upon the pirates. The expedition was com- 
pletely successful, the Americans capturing ten vessels, with 
twenty guns. 

The blaze of light from Plattsburg, Fort Erie, and Mobile 
Bay, and the triumphs on the sea of " The Peacock " and 
"The Wasp," were, however, soon clouded. The latter, 
after a hard battle with "The Avon" (which she conquered 
and sunk) and taking several prizes, must have gone down 
alone, as she was never heard from after ; and Chauncey was 
shut up by Yeo in Sackett's Harbor. We had not, at this 
time, a national vessel at sea. 

Izard's boastful expedition, with six thousand men, against 
Drummond, behind the Chippewa, completely failed. Think- 
ing that the confinement of Chauncey's fleet at Sackett's Har- 
bor, and of Brown in command there, would leave the British 
at full liberty to re-enforce Drummond, he refused to attack, 
blew up Fort Erie, and retired. 

Discontent, which now became general, especially in New 

65 



434 THE GEEAT REPUBLIC. 

England, gave additional strength to the Federalist opposi- 
tion, and culminated in the famous Hartford Convention. 
We greatly needed a decisive victory. 

New Orleans now seemed a doomed city. A formidable 
British fleet approached, bearing four thousand sailors and 
marines and twelve thousand veterans, '^ commanded by 
Packingham, Kean, Lambert, and Gibbs, able and experi- 
enced generals of Wellington's late Peninsular arm}^ ; whence, 
also, the troops had mostly been drawn." * 

Jackson, upon returning to New Orleans, found every thing 
in confusion. The defences he had commenced w^ere in 
dilapidation. The squadron on the water was entirely 
inadequate, and really no army was at his command 
But his daring genius and indomitable will supplied every 
thing. He soon made drilled soldiers of raw recruits, now 
o;atherin2r at his call, of the citizens of New Orleans, who 
knew him too well to refuse to drill when he ordered, and 
of " the noble-hearted, generous free men of color," who 
sprang to arms with the greatest alacrity when he announced 
their hearty welcome : he made soldiers even of Lafitte and 
his fugitive buccaneers, and of the convicts whom he released, 
all of whom became orderly and daring warriors under the 
inspiration of one powerful mind. 

When the British landed two thousand light troops, under 
Kean, from the Bayou Benevenu, about fifteen miles from 
New Orleans, Jackson found himself at the head of five 
thousand men of all kinds, only about a thousand of whom 
were regulars. He did not wait for the enemy to approach, 
but left Carroll and the Louisiana militia in charge of the 
city, iind moved at once to the attack. 

Coffee, who, by forced marches, came up in time with 
his brigade, was sent to the right. Jackson moved directly 
upon the enemy in front, and the schooner " Caroline " 
opened upon his left. Night had come on ; but the impetu- 
ous Jackson would not wait for the day. The battle raged 

* Hildrcth, 2J Series, iii. 559. 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE WAR-POWEE. 435 

furiously until the British found security from further 
assault between the old and the new levee. Jackson, havino- 
astonished Wellington's veterans by the vigor and skill of 
his attack, and taught them caution, which gave him time, 
retired within his main lines of defence. The enemy wait- 
ing for re-enforcements from the fleet, Jackson used every 
moment in strengthening his works. His rampart was con- 
structed of cotton-bales : the ditch in front was broaid. and 
deep, and both were extended into the swamp. The British 
sent hot shot into our ship " Caroline," and burned it to the 
water's edge ; but " The Louisiana " was towed away, and 
saved for future action. 

The next day, the enemy opened furiously upon Jackson's 
line "with artillery, bombs, and Congreve rockets : " but they 
w^ere answered so frightfully by the five heavy guns of the 
Americans, and the raking fire of " The Louisiana," that fur- 
ther advance was impossible ; and, after seven hours' des- 
perate fighting, the British retired. 

Just at this crisis, Jackson had to direct his attention to 
the city; and as there seemed danger of a pusillanimous sur- 
render under orders of the legislature, then in session, he 
despatched Clayborne to watch them, who, though governor, 
acting under martial law, promptly obeyed Jackson's orders. 
He, believing he was conforming to the iron will of his com- 
mander, " placed a military guard at the door of the hall, and 
broke up the legislative assembly." 

The intrepid general then scoured the city for shrinking 
cowards, ordered a registration of all the male inhabitants, 
and w^ent on with his fortifications. He directed Gen. Mor- 
gan to erect defences on the right bank of the river similar 
to those on the left, and his orders were obeyed. The Ken- 
tucky militia, two thousand two hundred and fifty strong, 
arrived ; and, though only part of them had arms, the rest 
were ordered to the works. 

On the eighth day of January, 1815, the grand final attack 
of the British was made, under command of Sir E. Packini;- 



436 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

ham in person. Thornton was directed to make a night- 
attack upon Morgan on the right bank of the river, which 
he did with bravery ; and, Morgan's militia becoming un- 
steady, this attempt was successful. In the mean time, the 
main British force, under Packingham, covered by the terrific 
fire of six eighteen-pounders, advanced with the degrading 
cry of "booty and beauty" as their watchword. The col- 
umn moving by the river carried an advanced American 
redoubt, the guns of which had raked the whole British 
lines as they came up. The main column, commanded by 
Gibbs and Kean, was hurled against Carroll's division, near- 
est the swamp. The storming-party encountered the ditch, 
and fell in large numbers before the unerring aim of the 
American sharpshooters and the belching fires of nine pieces 
of heavy artillery. They could not endure this storm of 
death. They staggered and recoiled. Sir Edward, in 
attempting to rally them, was slain ; Gibbs fell, mortally 
wounded ; Kean was dangerously wounded ; and Lambert, 
succeeding to the command, withdrew his mangled forces, 
calling back Thornton from his advantageous position on the 
opposite side of the river. The battle of New Orleans was 
gained, apparently, by the heroism and intrepidity of one 
great man, and the brave troops under his command ; but 
God, who " maketh wars to cease from the ends of the earth," 
had determined to end this frightful contest, and usher in 
the era of peace. 

The joy with which the people hailed the announcement 
of the treaty, agreed to by commissioners and ratified by the 
British Government, indicated their decided aversion to the 
war; while the administration, by waiving utterly the great 
question of the right of search, to resist which the war was 
commenced, made sufficient acknowledgment of the highest 
indiscretion, either in declaring war, or in consenting to a 
peace which did not secure the only grave point in dispute. 
The glorious victory of Jackson alone saved the president 
and the war Democrats from overwhelmingr disgrace. 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE WAR-POWER. 437 

In the mean time, it had fully appeared, on the land and 
on the sea, that the war-power of the Republic was in the 
people; that it was not in the administration nor in a stand 
ing army, but in the freedom of American citizenship. These 
men from the farm, the shop, the store, and the study, would 
not come first into action with the skill of veterans ; but 
they would include all the elements of a grand military 
force, and the war-power of the nation would be developed 
in the field. This, therefore, may be considered as Ameri- 
can history in advance of the world, — the people in the 
midst of peaceful industry are their own standing army. 



CHAPTER VII. 
DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 

" Consent to bad government is consent to ruin. Good government can come only of 
general intellectual and moral development." — Partridge. 

Education in the United States has received considerable 
attention ; and, while we do not boast of great learning, 
history will accord to us a degree of comparative progress 
quite equal to our age. The first wants of a new people 
are physical. Attention must be given to clearing away 
the forests, cultivating the soil, mechanical industry, and 
trade. The people must construct roads, bridges, houses, 
barns, churches, ships, and whatever else will provide them 
food, clothing, shelter, and the means of commerce. These 
are necessities ; and hence the useful precede the fine arts. 
Our rapid development and real greatness withdraw atten- 
tion from the fact of our recent origin as a people. It 
could hardly be credited, that, dating from the Declaration 
of Independence, we have not yet completed the first cen- 
tury of national existence. We are still very largely occu- 
pied with the rough labor of j)ioneers, slowly subjecting the 
soil of our vast territory to imperfect cultivation. These 
are facts eminently fit to be considered in estimating our 
real and relative progress in learning and the arts. 

PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

In the year ending June, 1860, about five millions of our 
population were at school. About one-sixth of our people 
are doubtless receiving tuition. A large proportion of them 



DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 439 

are children from five to fifteen years of age, who are in our 
common schools. These institutions are fundamental in the 
United States. They began early in our history, and formed 
a part of the constitutional provisions of Massachusetts and 
Pennsylvania. 

The idea of imparting the rudiments of an education 
without charge to the children of the Republic was a New- 
England idea, and it grew up from small beginnings to be 
a thoroughly American idea. It was opposed, on the one 
hand, to the neglect and degrading ignorance which per- 
vaded the lower classes in England ; and, on the other, to 
the aristocratic feeling that education was for the children 
of gentlemen, and they were to be kept apart from the 
children of the common people. To the thinking philan- 
thropist, there was a deep and destructive vice in this gen- 
eral ignorance and in these invidious distinctions. Schools, 
therefore, began to be provided for all. But this idea, like 
all others of great value, must contend for its position. Two 
public enemies of the common schools have been very 
determined in their opposition. The afiectations of caste, 
esteeming the common mind vulgar, and the higher bred 
entitled to the distinction of exclusiveness in the manner 
if not in the fact of education, have long withheld the sup- 
port which these great institutions of philanthropy have 
needed and deserved, and in whole States prevented their 
effective organization. 

Romish bigotry contends for the right of exclusive educa- 
tion from public funds, that children, not merely their own,, 
but as many others as they can control, may be educated 
Catholics at the public expense. The Government of the 
States generally treats them as Americans. It makes no 
objections to denominational schools ; but they cannot be 
the public schools which the people, as Americans, support. 
Taxes must be equal and privileges equal under the law. 
Differences may exist, and be provided for by individuals 
and churches ; but, as States and a General Government, we 



440 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

can know but one class, and they are citizens. We can have 
but on€ basis of taxation, and that is the public interest ; 
and but one obligation, and that is to afford equal privileges 
to all. Of course, just so far as the anti-American idea of 
exclusive Roman-Catholic education at the expense of the 
State extends, it interferes with our noble scheme of equal 
e(iucational privileges. It is a disguised or open public en- 
emy of a fundamental part of our free institutions. The 
contest on this issue is not yet concluded. Catholics, prop- 
erly Americans, sometimes give expression to the correct 
idea of citizenship ; contending that their people are not 
Irish, not German, not Italian, but American. Foreign in- 
fluence and the hereditary bigotry of the sect, however, for- 
bid this growing feeling to adjust itself to our system of 
free schools. The pa.tronage received from this source is, 
therefore, quietly extended or reluctantly tolerated by the 
priests, because it cannot be prevented. 

Notw^ithstanding these adverse influences, public schools 
are moving forward with free thought, and under the pro- 
tection of the enlightened public opinion which they so 
powerfully aid in forming. Their progress may be seen not 
only in the increasing millions who attend them, but in the 
extension of the system into parts of the country where 
they have been before unknown, and in the improved build- 
ings and grounds appropriated to them. So strong are 
they becoming in the affections of the people, that any 
amount of money may be had for their convenience and 
enlargement. The country schoolhouse is now generally 
found to be a neat and commodious building, with finely- 
cultivated and shaded grounds about it; and, not unfre- 
quently, the conveniences of the gymnasium are beginning 
to appear, showing an appreciation of physical with intel- 
lectual education. This is particularly true of the cities. 
Some of our common-school houses are magnificent struc- 
tures, costing as high as a hundred thousand dollars, and even 
more. 



DEVELOrMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 441 

The branches taught in the common schools are increas- 
ing, and raising the general standard of education in our 
midst. Not merely reading and orthography, geography 
and writinsr, arithmetic and grammar, bat the his-her Eno-- 
lish, the natural sciences, mathematics, and the languages, are 
taught most thoroughly. Our graded schools have all the 
advantages of classification and division of labor, affording 
opportunity for graduation from the lowest section of the 
primary to the high school, which is frequently a first-class 
academv, fittino; our children well for colleo;e or for business- 
life ; and all without charge to the pupil. 

It is falsely alleged by Romanists that these are infidel 
schools. It is true, they do not teach sectarian Christianity ; 
but they are thoroughly imbued with the great fundamental 
principles of the true religion. The Bible is very frequent- 
ly read as a part of the opening services of the school, and 
most appropriately used as a text-book ; and the children 
absorb from this great common revelation, as well as from 
other text-books, and from the devout minds of many of 
their teachers, true ideas of God, revelation, and the duties 
of morality and piety. In many of these schools, prayer 
is devoutly offered, and the spirit of true worship slowly 
imparted. The Lord's Prayer is devoutly repeated in con- 
cert; and the singing — a frequent daily exercise — brings 
out the glowing sentiment of gratitude and love for the 
Saviour of men. 

True Christianity is so extensively diffused among the 
masses, that it comes in like the sunlight through the pores 
of society, and diffuses its genial influences through the 
schools. The great leaders of public education are very 
generally devout Christians ; and our common education is 
thus becoming largely, and in the best sense, Christian. 

The feeling of invidious caste is gradually wearing away, 
and the children of the wealthiest and best citizens are not 
unfrequently found in our public schools. 

As one of the strong historical facts of the Republic, it 



56 



442 THE GEEAT REPUBLIC. 

should be stated that hirge numbers of our best business 
and public men have received their education only from the 
common schools ; while multitudes of scholars and literary 
men are indebted to this fundamental American institution 
for their thoroughness in higher academic and collegiate 
education. The larger benefits of the common-school sys- 
tem appear, however, in the fact of their pervading, quiet 
influence upon the citizenship of our country ; the general 
intelligence and elevation they impart to the freemen upon 
whom the elective franchise and the government of the 
nation devolve rendering it morally impossible to deceive, 
and finally wrest from our patriot princes, the people, the 
liberties which, by reading, song, instruction, and prayer, 
become the high trust of each individual and of the whole 
combined. It would seem almost unnecessary to suggest to 
the American people the sacred duty of guarding and de- 
veloping their public schools as the source of patriotic 
devotion, and the indispensable means of high Christian 
civilization. If it were possible to conceive of the wreck 
of this system upon the rock of sectarian bigotry, we might 
well say the days of the Republic are numbered. 

SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 

The Sunday school has, beyond question, become in 
America a truly national institution. No man writes a true 
history of the United States who fails to give it prominent 
position. As a legitimate product of the great revival of 
spiritual religion, — first in England, and then in America, — 
it seemed very humane to assemble poor children together 
on the Lord's Day, and teach them to read. It was most 
fortunate, that, to the devout Christian minds engaged in 
this benevolent enterprise, the Holy Scriptures should be 
at once regarded as the appropriate text-book for the more 
advanced among the children. Soon, quite naturally, por- 
tions of these sacred revelations were committed to memory. 



DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 443 

lessons were explained, and the most happy results were 
seen in the true conversion and great moral improvement 
of many of the children. 

As the efforts of good men and women extended, the in- 
stitution began to assume definite form, and the plans of 
God in regard to it became more evident. It was seen at 
length to arise directly out of the Church, to be a legiti- 
mate outgrowth of Christianity, an institution of God, and 
thoroughly organic as a grand department of missionary 
labor and effective discipleship. 

The Sunday school thus comes in appropriately to supple- 
ment the public schools. It is free to all, it uses in a proper 
manner holy time, its labors are a noble charity, and it be- 
comes more eminently and distinctly religious than the com- 
mon school can be. It is universally known that children 
who attend these schools will be taught sacred history and 
geography, the fall and sinfulness of man, the redemption of 
the world by Jesus Christ, the divine agency of the Holy 
Spirit in the production of goodness, the regeneration of 
man, and the hope of everlasting life ; the extreme Avicked- 
ness of idolatry, theft, murder, adultery, and Sabbath-break- 
ing; the propriety and duty of penitence, and faith in the 
Saviour of the world ; membership in the Church of Christ, 
and a life of strict honesty, holiness, and love. They will 
be gradually raised to noble views of God and duty, to the 
highest conceptions of private and public virtue ; and from 
purest motives they will be led, so far as practicable, to be- 
come genuine patriots and broad-minded philanthropists. 
And all this, not from mere human instruction, but from the 
legitimate appropriation of forces coming directly from 
God in answer to many fervent prayers, resulting in true 
conviction for sin, and genuine conversion by the power of 
the Holy Spirit, through the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

So far as this extends, the reformation, both of character 
and manners, among these children, becomes radical, and 
truly astonishing. The legitimate result is not to make 



444 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

them Sunday scholars of another grade, not to produce any 
new independent organization, but to lead them directly 
into the visible Church of God. From the Sunday schools 
come the best instructed, most intelligent, reliable Christians 
of the age ; and we behold here the grand nursery of the 
Church of the future. 

But a still wider influence goes out from this great provi- 
dential institution. On the sabbath, the education of the 
week is extended into its legitimate sphere, imbued more 
deeply with the spirit of right and of justice ; and its defects 
are measurably supplied. Like a diffusible stimulant, the 
inspirations of the Sunday school enter every organ and tis- 
sue of the body jDolitic ; and who would question its health- 
giving power ? Through the more thoughtful and devout, 
negligent and wicked children come to feel the wrong of 
sin, and the duty of a holy life. Through the children, the 
parents come to be largely impressed with the value of the 
Bible, the worth of the soul, and the need of a Saviour. 
Thus, through the Sunday school, quiet missionary influences 
reach the courts and lanes, the garrets and cellars, of our 
crowded cities ; the sick and the poor are relieved, and the 
ignorant are instructed ; not unfrequently other schools, 
and even churches, are founded ; thus showing the pioneer 
agency of this institution in the hands of the Church. Young 
people learn to love the sabbath and the j)rivileges of the 
sanctuary, the Bible-class, and the company of the good, and 
are here comparatively guarded against the attractive and 
ruinous influences of popular sinful pleasures. Thus teach- 
ers and oflicers are provided for Sunday schools, and the 
institution re-acts powerfully and usefully upon itself Thus 
scholars, writers, professional men, and statesmen become 
imbued with the spirit of truth and justice, and the great 
public functions of popular sovereignty become healthful, 
free, and powerful in their action ; a broad-minded philan- 
thropy becomes prevalent, and at length national. 

We affirm that these are not only the legitimate, but the 



DEVELOrMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 445 

actual historical results of thorough Sunday-school instruc- 
tion, under the guidance of the Church, as a part of the 
great whole of religious influence, and a method of moral 
power now clearly providentially indicated. 

It requires, therefore, no great sagacity to see that the 
institution has already become a part and a mode of the 
national life ; that it has ceased to be experimental, and has 
become historical ; and that both those who make and those 
who write history must recognize this vitalizing force of the 
modern ages. Those who ignore or neglect this great power 
in this last half of the nineteenth century are unhistorical. 
And especially must the present and future development of 
the Republic of Liberty depend upon this and all other forms 
of culture which purify the heart, correct the judgment, and 
recognize God as the great Sovereign of mind, and Source 
of moral power. 

Let it not be deemed strange, therefore, that this institu- 
tion is slowly correcting its own mistakes, gradually per- 
fecting its course of study, and making its literature ; and 
that great public men in the United States, governors 
and judges, senators and assembly-men, learned gentlemen 
and splendid women, as well as the most humble, are sitting 
down humbly every Lord's Day before their classes of little 
ones, rich and poor, to give and receive lessons from the word 
of God. 

The Sunday school is one grand reliance for the Christian 
culture of freemen, and the constitution of a pure, exalted 
statesmanship. It is, we repeat, truly national in the United 
States o^ America. 

In 1786, Bishop Asburj^, of the Methodist -Episcopal 
Church, established the first Sunday school proper on the 
Western Continent. In 1861, the number of Sunday-school 
children in the Republic was estimated to be considerably 
above three millions. Since that time, the numbers in attend- 
ance have increased rapidly ; the Sunday-school force of the 
Methodists alone having reached over a million and a half 



446 THE GREAT EEPUCLIC. 

It is even more important to state, that the institution is 
revealing more distinctly its organic life. It rises up as the 
great training department of the Church, full of energy and 
missionary power. Its graded classes and normal discipline 
give it order in " theory and practice," and secure perma- 
nence as well as rapid development. Let American states- 
men and philanthropists cherish the Sunday school. 



ACADEMIES. 

The word " academy," as commonly used m this country, has 
a peculiar meaning. It applies to intermediate institutions 
between common schools and colleges. We have seen, that, 
in our public schools, the highest grade reaches the acade- 
mies, and becomes, to some extent, a scientific and classical 
school, actually free to all. The growing intelligence of our 
children and young people of both sexes, however, requires 
institutions of higher grade ; and they are found in nearly 
every county, and especiall}^ at the centres of distinct com- 
munities, in buildings of great beauty and convenience, with 
regular gradations of studies and classes. They are under 
the direction of teachers and executive officers generally 
well educated, sometimes masters of their respective sciences 
and of the art of teachino; ; thus furnishing to our more 
aspiring and promising young people a sound symmetrical 
education, which answers a good purpose for business and 
professional life, or a preparation for college. 

In all these institutions, the languages, the natural sciences, 
and mathematics are taught, and in some of them with great 
thoroughness. Their students number from perhaps thirty 
to five hundred each, many of whom remain from one to 
three years, and others for even a longer period, going 
through a practical or preparatory course of great value, 
and securing a mental drill and development which give 
them great power in the future. The niunber of students 
now annuall3' issuing from our academies, seminaries, and 



DEVELOPME>irT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 447 

collegiate institutes, is becoming so large as to perceptibly 
elevate the average range of general intelligence and the 
standard of national character. Germany might as well do 
without her gymnasium as America without her academy. 

These institutions are sometimes founded and supported 
by the counties and municipalities, and partially endowed 
by the State ; but much more generally they are erected by 
the churches. The great Christian denominations, while they 
omit from their courses of instruction and discipline every 
thing which is peculiarly sectarian, feel the obligation imper- 
ative to provide liberally for the education of their own chil- 
dren and the general public under the thorough transforming 
influence of Christianity. They insist that true education 
must recognize God and his holy word ; must present Christ 
in the atonement, and the Holy Ghost in regeneration, as 
the restorer of heart and intellect and volition to their ori- 
ginally-intended righteousness. While, therefore, they seek 
thus to guard against infidel demoralization in the higher 
training of their young men and women, they look for the 
divine blessing upon their schemes of science and true wis- 
dom. 

The churches expend large sums of money, freely given 
by the rich and the poor, to build, and, at least in part, 
endow, these institutions. It is a form of Christian enter- 
prise in which their very best minds, lay and clerical, expend 
their most sacrificing and consecrated efforts, not unfre- 
quently for a lifetime, actually to rear the national fabric 
in soundness, strength, and beauty. These schools, to a 
greater or less extent under the patronage of the evangelical 
churches, have ceased to be regarded as ecclesiastical estab- 
lishments for local or sectarian purposes, and come to be 
considered, as they really are to a large degree, great public 
vitalizing forces in every commonwealth for the proper cul- 
ture of the rising generation, the growth of the State, and 
the exaltation of the Republic. 

Thus, in the most enlightened as well as the darkest ao:e 



448 THE GREAT REPUBLIC* 

of the world, the Church appears as the grand conservator of 
learning, the regenerator of society, and the strength of the 
nation. 

We also use the word " academy " in its higher sense. The 
Military Academy at West Point ; the American Academy 
of Arts and Sciences, Boston, founded in 1780 ; the Connec- 
ticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, founded in 1799 ; the 
Academy of Natural Science, Philadelphia, founded in 1818; 
the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, established in 
1807 ; the National Academy of Design, and the Medical 
Academy, at New York, — are all institutions of high grade 
for improvement in the arts and sciences. The historical, 
classical use of the term "academy" is not so frequent here 
as on the continent of Europe. It is, however, sometimes 
applied generally to all the higher institutions of learning. 

COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES. 

In a former part of this work, we have seen that the broad 
common sense and true statesmanship which regard high 
mental culture, under the control of religion, as vital to the 
Commonwealth, came with our fathers to this country. 
This spirit incorporated the Bible, the pulpit, the public 
school, and the college into the very framework of society ; 
and there, despite the rage of infidels, Romanists, and char- 
latans, they have ever since remained, not as dead in opera- 
tive elements, but living, expanding forces, without which 
the growth of our nation would have been utterly impossible. 
Let any man who doubts the soundness of this conclusion 
undertake to account for our national development and 
power, leaving out the Bible, the pulpit, the common school, 
and the college, and he will soon convict himself of inex- 
cusable superficiality and ridiculous narrowness of thought 
and opinion. 

It cannot be claimed that the greatest wisdom has con- 
trolled our higher educational movements in this country. 



DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 449 

We have shown and felt, in this respect as well as others, 
the weakening influence of ultra democracy. More reo-ard 
for the general, and not less for the particular, more for the 
whole, though not less for the local interests of the people, 
or, in other words, stronger centralization, would have given 
us fewer but much better colleges and universities, and a 
much riper, broader scholarship. We have not unfrequently 
wasted our means by localizing tendencies and divisions, thus 
producing a large number of colleges and universities quite 
unworthy of the name. 

If we have in this manner subjected ourselves to just criti- 
cism, and even damaging ridicule, we have, nevertheless, 
increased our academic popular power, and done in this 
what we do in every thing, — allowed the free range of facts 
and elective athnities to correct our opinions and revise our 
actions. We have learned, to some extent, where are our 
true centres, and what are our true methods. We are slowly 
accumulating the logic of age: for though our history includes 
but a small number of years, and denies us the moral force 
of a venerable antiquity, the rush of events in our new 
country crowds our brief years with so large a number of 
facts, and so much vitalizing force, that time, actually brief, 
becomes virtually long ; and it is no vain boast that we are 
much older than our years. It will be found to be historical 
at length, as it certainly is philosophical, that republican 
liberty rapidly multiplies the ages by its powerful attractions 
of wisdom and facts, the vigor of its thinking, the reckless- 
ness of its ventures, and the velocity of its movements. 
These strange elements of a new measurement of duration 
are gradually coming to the surface ; but they are only 
beginning to be recognized by thinkers in America and 
Europe. They will force their own acknowledgment when 
a few years have gone by, and it comes to appear, that in 
vitalizing power, if not in the numbers of their alumni, Yale 
and Michigan are older than Cambridge and Oxford. 

The State and the Church are separate in America, and 

57 



450 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

SO they will ever remain ; while religion and political wisdom 
in Europe will slowly approach, and finally reach, the Ameri- 
can standard of moral freedom in all the great conditions 
of Christian progress. In the mean time, the two great 
thoughts and facts, the Church and the State, are slowly 
revealing their common identity of life, development, and 
mission. In the spirit of this truth, wherever in this country 
the State institutes a college or university, Christian life fills 
and develops it, or it dies. Wherever the Church organizes 
a college or university, the State incorporates it, and some- 
times (more rarely heretofore than it will hereafter) assists 
in endowing or supporting it with the Christian wealth of 
a Christian State ; and whether its patronage includes money 
or land, or only influence, it absorbs the rising goodness and 
talent, the public virtue and power, which the Church, 
through her institutions, generates. Hence it is that we can- 
not know education nor the State, in the Great Republic, 
apart from the influence of the Church. 

Here therefore, as elsewhere, we are not surprised to find 
the Church, in her evangelical departments, the great organ- 
izer and inspirer of educational enterprise. The Bible, 
prayer, and regeneration come in to give life and direction 
to study and training; and consciously or unconsciously, 
officially or unofficially, the highest institutions of learning 
in America take their mould and receive their distinction 
from ecclesiastical life and action. Let the following table 
of facts illustrate these remarks. It is imperfect ; but, com- 
piled by the Andover, Lane, and Chicago Societies of Inquiry, 
it is reliable for the purposes of this discussion. 



Colleges. 

Amberst 

Allegbany 

Appleton 

Bates 

Beloit . 

Bowdoia 





Professors 


Conversions 


Ministry 


Students. 


of Keligion. 


during Year. 


in View 


. 218 


151 


50 


38 




93 


27 


26 


. 319 


75 


10 


15 


. 48 


81 




13 


. 194 


92 


21 


44 


. 121 


38 


13 





DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 



451 



Professors Conversions Ministry 



Colleges. 




Students. 


of Religion. 


during Year. 


in Viei 


Brown University 


. 190 


130 


4 


50 


Burlington 


. 99 


22 




6 


Cbicago University 


. 280 


75 


30 




Cornell 


. \ 516 


150 


102 


9 


Columbia 




. 65 


15 




11 


Dartmouth 




. 234 


100 


20 


20 


Dickinson 




. 120 


80 


40 


20 


Eleutheria 




. 32 . 


5 






Grenesee 




. 81 


55 




19 


Hamline 




. 389 


155 


25 


10 


Hanover 




. 39 


15 






Harvard 




. 419 


80 




24 


Hamilton 




. 164 


78 


11 


42 


Illinois Wesleyan Ui 


liversity . 298 


95 


30 


15 


Indiana State Unive 


rsity . . 253 


50 


21 


4 


Indiana, Asbury 


. 368 








Kenyon 


. 143 


48 




31 


Louisburg 


. 95 


59 




33 


Madison 


. . 130 


102 


10 


74 


Marietta 


. 46 


27 






McKendree . 


. 130 


17 


19 


11 


Miami . 


. 67 


18 






Michigan 


. 280 


121 




19 


Middlebury . 


. 53 


20 


1 


12 


New Jersey . 


. 232 




69 


50 


North-western Unive 


rsity . .135 


85 




60 


Oberlin 


.1,145 


624 


200 




Ohio, Wesleyan 


. 162 


118 


100 


73 


Otterbein 


. 225 


90 


20 


10 


Rutgers 


. 105 


46 


3 


25 


Shurtleff 


. 185 


150 


5 


61 


Pennsylvania . 


. 104 


65 


18 


48 


Trinity . 


. 59 


41 




18 


Union . 


. 150 


44 


' 8 


18 


Vermont University 


. 38 


18 


5 


2 


Wabash 


. 150 


48 


40 


17 


Washington and Jefl 


erson . 142 


82 


3 


47 


Western Reserve 


. 126 


59 


25 


10 


Wesleyan University 


. 133 


114 




40 


Wilberforce Universi 


ty . .42 


24 




6 


Williams 


. 190 


118 


30 


18 


Yale . 




. 500 


229 


40 





^52 THE GREAT EEPTJBLIC. « 

To a very Large extent, the intelligent liberality inspired 
by our holy rehgion has produced these institutions ; and 
they are hence thoroughly pervaded by the religious spirit. 
With what propriety, therefore, is one day in every year 
devoted by the evangelical churches to fervent prayer to 
God for his blessing on the colleges of our land ! 

Our universities are generally colleges, and not, as 
on the continent of Europe, a higher grade for advancing 
the education of graduates from the gymnasium or college ; 
nor, as in England, grand corporations, including colleges, 
fellowships, sinecures, professorships, and their ancient and 
peculiar traditions. We have, however, several universities, 
including schools of law, medicine, and divinity. 

Learning in America, it may be conceded, is rather gen- 
eral than great or profound ; but we can claim an increasing 
number of scholars who are recognized and felt throughout 
the scientific and literary world. 

THE PRESS. 

In 1822, Lord John Russell mentioned before the House 
of Lords "the multiplication and improvement in news- 
papers, as gratifying evidences of the augmented wealth and 
expanding culture of the middle classes in Great Britain." 
Some eighty years later, Mr. Kennedy said of America, 
" A free press has become the representative, and, for the 
masses, the organ, of that free speech which is found indis- 
pensable to the development of truth, either in the religious, 
the political, the literary, or the scientific world." Both 
these remarks are now receiving their fulfilment in the 
United States. Our periodical literature has become one 
of our grand " popular educators ; " and the " augmented 
wealth and expanding culture " of our free citizens have 
given, at the same time, evidence of the power of a free 
press, and scope for the development of its power. The 
United States has been called "a newspaper-reading na- 



DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 453 

tion." In 1860, we published 4,051 papers and periodicals, 
amounting to 927,951,548 copies, valued at $39,678,043; 
which would be 34.36 copies to each white man, woman, 
and child of the country. Our book-printing amounted to 
$11,843,459; job-work, to $7,181,213. In twenty States, 
— New England, Western, and Middle, and the District of 
Columbia, — the work of the press, in its various depart- 
ments, reached, in the single year 1860, $39,678,043. 

The increase of this power is beyond all parallel. A single 
religious publishing-house has turned out more than twelve 
bound books a minute for every working minute of a year ; 
an indication of the reading-matter actually demanded and 
paid for by the American people. 

It is of little avail to attempt to estimate the power of 
the press in this Republic. It has its vicious elements ; is 
seized by infidels, Romanists, spiritists, and demagogues to 
mislead the people for selfish ends, or to promote a perverted 
class interest. But this exceptional use of the great power 
of the nineteenth century does by no means render its free- 
dom questionable, or its influence, as a whole, pernicious. Its 
teachings, good and bad, illustrate the freedom of true re- 
publicanism ; while its collisions of mind and principle reveal 
the safety of free discussion, and bring out with enhanced 
power all the great doctrines of liberty. Licentiousness in 
the press as well as in every thing else must, of course, be 
suppressed ; but the Americans are sensitive with regard to 
any other limitations. The purest and noblest in our nation 
say, " Let the battle go on ; let error and fiction war with 
truth ; let the selfish passions of leaders and parties dash 
against the fortress of liberty ; let infidelity and superstition 
assault the pure principles of the gospel and the true church 
of God : there is no dangler." 



Truth, crushed to earth, will rise again ; 

The eternal years of God are hers : 
While Error, wounded, writhes in pain, 

And dies aaiid her worshippers." 



454 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

In the art of printing, the Americans have made great 
improvements. Conceding priority in experimental inven- 
tions for stereotyping to Vander Mey in Leyden, Ged of 
Edinburgh, M. Firmin Didot, France, and the Earl of Stan- 
hope, England, it may be affirmed that American genius has 
carried the art to its highest present point of utility. The 
same may be claimed in regard to electrotyping, an impor- 
tant branch of electro-metallurgy ; a department of industrial 
art, the power of which, for convenience, beauty, economy, 
and despatch, cannot be regarded as yet fully developed. 
Type-setting and distributing-machines, invented by Wil- 
liam H. Mitchell of New York, and C. W. Felt of Salem, 
Mass., indicate the labor-saving power of genius, and mark 
the progress of practical art in America. 

Perhaps nothing more distinctly indicates this progress 
than the contrast between the printing-press used by Frank- 
lin, and preserved in Washington as a sacred relic, and the 
rapid power-press of to-day. England, through the inven- 
tive genius of William Nicholson in 1790, may claim the 
honor of commencing experiments which led to the inven- 
tion of power-presses. Friederich Konig of Saxony, begin- 
ning in 1804 under the patronage of T. Bentley and R. 
Taylor of London, made vigorous efforts in this direction, 
but did not reach practical success. He abandoned the at- 
tempt to work a hand-press by power. He, however, by 
the help of A. F. Bauer, a German of Stuttgard, made fur- 
ther experiments; and Nov. 28, 1814, "The London Times" 
was printed on a steam-press constructed secretly by these 
Germans. 

Cowper and Applegath, both Englishmen, gave new form 
and considerable advancement to this important department 
of mechanism ; producing a cylinder-press which struck off 
six thousand two hundred copies per hour, and worked daily 
for more than ten years. 

In the mean time, " Isaac Adams of Boston, Mass., took 
up the problem abandoned by Konig, of working a hand- 



DEVELOPMENT OF LEAENING AND THE ARTS. 455 

press by power, and succeeded in making the machine de- 
scribed in his patents of 1830 and 1836." The success 
reaUzed by Mr. Adams in these experiments was largely in 
advance of his predecessors. 

But to Richard M. Hoe, of New York, the world is in- 
debted for complete success. In 1847, he made " a perfect 
machine, on the cylinder of which the types are held by 
friction between bevelled column-rules." Thus at leno;th 
was produced a complete revolution in the art of printing. 
" The ten-cylinder presses, such as are used in New York and 
London by the leading journals, strike off fifteen thousand 
impressions per hour. They are only employed for news- 
papers of large circulation." 

Setting types by machines, stereotyping, electrotyping, 
the use of power-presses, and the statistics of the periodical 
and book trade, sufficiently prove that the Americans are a 
reading people. 

STEAM-NAVIGATION. 

When Watt broug-ht his sjreat invention of the steam- 
engine to practical perfection, men were by no means aware 
of the revolution it Avould produce in the navigation and 
locomotion of the world. 

Before its power could be appreciated or applied, numerous 
unsuccessful efforts would, of course, be made. Experiment- 
ers in England and France up to 1730, Jonathan Hull in 
1736, the Count d'Auxiron, the Periers, the Marquis de 
Jouffry, and M. des Blancs, from 1774 to 1796, made praise- 
worthy efforts, but with no practical results. John Fitch of 
Pennsylvania, in 1786, succeeded in propelling a small skiff 
by steam, and in subsequent attempts, in 1790, on the Dela- 
w^are, obtained so much success as to justly entitle him to the 
credit of establishing the practicability of steam-navigation ; 
but his efforts fell short of the complete triumph wdiich 
seemed to be just before him. Rumsey of Virginia, on the 
Potomac in 1787, and in England in 1793, made progress in 



456 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

this direction. Enough had been done prior to the experi- 
ments of Miller and Symington in Scotland, in 1788, to secure 
to America the claim of priority in this great discovery, so 
clearly as never to have been successfully controverted. Chan- 
cellor R. R Livingstone of New York, Oliver Evans of Phil- 
adelphia, and John Stevens of Hoboken, N. J., made experi- 
ments which rendered still clearer the practicability of future 
success, but did not quite reach it. 

Well, therefore, was it remarked by the committee of the 
first Universal Exhibition in 1851, that " many persons in 
various countries claim the honor of having first invented 
small boats propelled by steam ; but it is to the undaunted 
perseverance and exertions of the American Fulton that is 
due the everlasting honor of having produced this revolu- 
tion both in naval architecture and navigation." In " The 
Clermont" of "a hundred and sixty tons burden, a hun- 
dred and thirty feet long, eighteen feet wide, and seven feet 
deep, on the morning of Aug. 7, 1807, Fulton, with a few 
friends and mechanics and six passengers, started from New 
York for Albany, leaving on the shore an incredulous and 
jeering crowd." This was the first steamboat excursion 
in the world. It was successful, and commenced a new era 
in navigation and commerce, rendering the name of Robert 
Fulton immortal, and conferring imperishable honor upon the 
country which gave him birth. 

Stevens came very near anticipating his great countrymen 
in the credit of their success. His competing steamer, forced 
to avoid the New- York waters by the monopoly granted by 
the legislature to Livingstone and Fulton, pushed out boldly 
into the Atlantic, and reached Philadelphia in safety; thus 
becoming the pioneer in ocean steam-navigation. " In 1818, 
'The Savannah,' a New- York-built ship, with side-wheels, 
and propelled by steam and sails, crossed the Atlantic to St. 
Petersburg, via Liverpool ; reaching the latter place, direct 
from New York, in twentj^-six days, and returning in safety." 
Thus to American genius and daring belongs the first honor 



DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 457 

of the great revolution in ocean-navigation, as well as that 
on internal waters. 

In fifty years from the first trip of " The Clermont " on 
the Hudson, the number and influence of steamboats and 
steamships had exceeded computation. The world is alive 
wdth the quickened activity which has resulted to mind and 
commerce. Time, beyond computation, is saved in the 
transaction of business. The style of convenience in moving 
over the waters, and the nearer approach of nations, con- 
tribute to general improvement in civilization and the real- 
ized brotherhood of man. In all this we cannot fail to see 
the distinct manifestation of God. His were the waters and 
caloric ; his the timber, the metals, and the fuel ; his the 
mind and the muscle. He made them all, and controlled 
the time and the place of their mysterious combinations ; 
thus revealing clearly his purpose, in the colonization and 
government of this country, to advance the race boldly 
bej'ond all former standards and methods of civilization. 

RAILROADS. 

To England fairly belongs the first honor of this great 
invention and the use of steam-locomotives. The beg-in- 
nings, of course, were very small and rude ; but they demon- 
strated the fact that steam-power could be rendered available 
for impelling carriages and removing freight on land. The 
development of this power has been very rapid both in 
Europe and America. It began in this country in 1829 ; 
and the decade immediately under review marks a splendid 
advance in this great method of civilization and progress. 
Previous to 1850, our railroads "sustained only an unim- 
portant relation to the internal commerce of the country. 
Nearly all the lines then in operation were local or isolated 
works, and neither in extent nor design had begun to be 
formed into that vast and connected system, which, like a 
web, now covers every portion of our wide domain, enabling 

58 



458 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

each work to contribute to the traffic and value of all, and 
supplying means of locomotion and a market, almost at his 
own door, for nearly every citizen of the United States." 

Only one line of road, the various links of the New- York 
Central, connected the tide-waters of the East with the great 
internal basins of the country ; and this was encumbered 
with such tolls in the interest of the Erie Canal, as to amount 
to an embaro;o on frei^-ht. 

The next line, extending from Boston to Ogdensburg, was 
completed within the year 1850. The New- York and Erie 
was next; and this was opened April 22,1851. The next 
was the Pennsylvania, which completed its "mountain divis- 
ion in 1854." The Baltimore and Ohio, fifth in time, was 
opened in 1853. " The Tennessee River, a tributary of the 
Mississippi, was reached in 1850 by the Western and Atlan- 
tic Railroad of Georgia ; and the Mississippi itself, by the 
Memphis and Charleston Railroad, in 1859. In the extreme 
North, the Atlantic and St. Lawrence, now known as the 
Grank Trunk, was completed early in 1853. In 1858, the 
Virginia system was extended to a connection with the Mem- 
phis and Charleston and with the Nashville and Chattanooga 
Railroads." 

"The eight great works named, connecting the interior 
with the seaboard, are the trunks or base lines upon which 
is erected the vast system that now overspreads the whole 
country. They seem as outlets to the interior for its ])Yod- 
ucts, which would have little or no commercial value with- 
out improved highways, the cost of transportation over which 
does not equal one-tenth of that of our ordinary roads." 

The following will exhibit the number of miles of rail- 
roads constructed in ten years, from 1850 to 18fi0 : — 



Increase in 
Ten Years. 

Miles. 



Maine 226.58 

New Hampshire . . .191.27 
Vermont 277.18 



Increase in 

Ten Years. 

Miles. 



Massachusetts 237.22 

Rhode Island 39.02 

Connecticut 190.74 



New-England States 1,162.91 



DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 



459 



Increase in 
Ten Years. 



New York ' 1,298.74 



New Jersey .... 
Pennsylvania . 
Delaware .... 
Maryland .... 

Middle Atlantic States 



353.97 

1,620.15 

97.50 

126.90 

3,497.26 



Virginia. ..... 1,256.01 



North Carolina . 
South Carolina . 
Georgia . 
Florida . . . 



640.92 
698.97 
760.50 
380.50 



Southern Atlantic States, 3,786.90 

Alabama 610.66 

Mississippi 797.30 

Louisiana 255.25 

Texas 306.00 



Gulf States . . . 

Arkansas .... 
Tennessee .... 
Kentucky .... 

Interior States South 



1,969.21 

38.50 
1,197.92 

489.72 

1,726.14 



Ohio . . 
Indiana . 
Michigan 
Illinois 
Wisconsin 
Minnesota 
Iowa . 
Kansas . 



California .... 
Oregon 

Pacific States 

New-England States . 
Middle Atlantic States 
Southern Atlantic States 
Gulf States .... 
Interior States South . 
Interior States North . 
Pacific States . 

Total in United States 



Increase in 

Ten Years. 

Miles. 

2,325.48 
1,897.90 

457.30 
2,757.40 

902.61 

679.67 



Interior States North . 9,020.36 



70.05 
3.80 

73.85 



1,162.91 
3,497.26 
3,736.90 
1,969.21 
1,726.14 
9,020.36 
73.85 

21,186.63 



Let the reader observe that we began this ten years with 
8,588.79 miles of railroad in operation in the whole United 
States, costing $296,260,128 ; during the progress of the de- 
cade, we increased 21,186.63 miles, at a cost of $838,192,781 ; 
making 29,775.42 miles of road, costing $1,134,452,909. 
This progress is so great, that we cannot extend our concep- 
tions or reason so as fully to grasp and comprehend it. In 
the decades to come, additions will be still more incompre- 
hensible. 

These roads, it was estimated by Mr. Kennedy, "trans- 
ported in the aggregate at least eight hundred and fifty tons 
of merchandise per annum to the mile of road in operation. 
Such a rate would give twenty-six million tons as the total 



460 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

annual tonnage of railroads for the whole country. If we 
estimate the value of this tonnage at a hundred and fifty 
dollars per ton, the aggregate value of the whole would be 
three billion nine hundred million dollars. Vast as this com- 
merce is, more than three-quarters of it has been created 
since 1850. 

Up to the close of 1866, we had extended our lines so as 
to reach 36,890 miles; making about thirty-eight per cent 
of all the railroads in the world. In all Europe there are 
50,117 miles, in North and South America 40,866 miles, 
in Asia 3,660 miles, in Great Britain and Ireland 13,286 
miles, in France 3,082, and in Prussia 5,704, miles of rail- 
road. In the United States there are eighty-one square 
miles to each mile of railroad, and a mile of railroad to 
each thousand inhabitants. In Great Britain and Ireland, 
the proportion is nine miles of area to one of railroad, and 
one mile of road to each 2,189 of population ; and in France 
the ratio is twenty-four square miles, and 4,172 of population, 
to one mile of railroad. 

One of the two grandest enterprises of the age is the Trans- 
continental Railroad connectins- the Atlantic and Pacific 
Oceans, and bringing America and Asia into neighborhood 
relations. The Union Pacific Railroad is now rapidly moving 
westward. It reached the Rocky Mountains in September, 
1867, — a distance of five hundred and seventeen miles from 
Omaha, Nebraska, where it connects with the great Eastern 
sj'Stems of roads centring at St. Louis, Chicago, Boston, and 
New York. The California Central is building from the 
Pacific Ocean, eastward, to meet the Union Pacific ; and they 
have already tunnelled the Sierra Nevadas, and hasten to 
meet their Eastern co-laborers at the earliest possible mo- 
ment. 

By this road, New York is within a week of San Francis- 
co ; and, by steam, Asia is within twenty-eight days of our 
great port on the Pacific. With these connections, the vast 
trade of Europe with Eastern Asia must cross this continent, 



DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS, 461 

find San Francisco and New York be raised to a position of 
commercial enterprise heretofore unequalled. 

This vast work was boldly commenced by the United 
States in the midst of our gigantic civil war. Individual 
capital is munificently aided by the government with a grant 
of twelve thousand eight hundred acres of land to every mile 
of road ; to which are added United-States bonds, for the 
least expensive portion, sixteen thousand dollars per mile ; 
the next class, thirty-two thousand dollars ; and, for the 
mountain section, forty-eight thousand dolhirs per mile. 
This immense undertaking is now (fall of 1867) more than 
half completed. The cars will doubtless pass from ocean 
to ocean early in the year 1870. 

In the mean time, American genius has rapidly improved 
the comfort of railroad travelling. We may now at our 
pleasure enjoy our saloons and refreshments in the splendid 
cars fitting up for this and other roads ; and, wdien weary, at 
night we can retire to our state-rooms, and enjoy our repose, 
and wake in the morning to find that we have moved as 
rapidly and safely in the hours of sleep as in the day. 

THE SAFETY STEAM-GENERATOR. 

We have not reached the highest perfection in the use of 
steam. Invention and discovery ought to reduce the bulk 
and expense of steam-apparatus, and secure us against the 
possibility of explosions. In this connection, it gives us great 
pleasure to introduce to our readers a recent invention by 
our fellow-countryman, Thomas Mitchell of Albany, N.Y., 
which promises to accomplish these invaluable results. It 
has been examined and fully indorsed by scientific men and 
practical engineers. John Johnson, LL.D., Professor of 
Natural Science in the Wesleyan University at Middle- 
town, Conn., in a letter to the inventor, says, " Having been 
favored with an opportunity to witness the working of your 
recently-invented safety steam-generator, I take pleasure in 



462 THE GEEAT EEPUBLIC. 

expressing my views of it. The impression made upon my 
mind is altogether favorable ; and, if I may not affirm posi- 
tively that it is the greatest invention of the age, I can say, 
conscientiously, that I believe it will have the effect very 
considerably to increase the importance and value of steam 
as a motive-power, by diminishing both the cost of its per- 
fection and the danger of its use. I am happy to say that 
I consider your invention one of great importance and inter- 
est, as it cannot fail of coming into general use very soon." 

Other testimonials express the same and even stronger 
convictions, without reservation. I have seen the movement 
of this beautiful invention as employed in working machine- 
ry; and I cannot see how it can fail to revolutionize the 
whole system of available steam-power in mechanism, loco- 
motion, and steam-navigation. From the following descrip- 
tion by the inventor, the reader will receive a clear idea of 
the steam-generator : — 

" This generator takes the place of steam-boilers. Its con- 
struction is simply a cast-iron cylinder, lying horizontally 
within a furnace ; which furnace is formed of two-eighths of 
an inch wrought-iron plates riveted together, with a space 
between of about one inch. This space is kept filled with 
water, thus protecting the iron case from the effects of the 
heat. The water thus heated is pumped into the generator. 
From this water, there is an open pipe into the air, so that 
no pressure is possible. The generator is made to rotate by 
the steam-pump, making about two revolutions per minute 
over the fire in the furnace ; thus securing an equal tempe- 
rature in its metal, and, of course, obviating the injurious 
effects of unequal expansion and contraction, and therefore 
giving it the greatest possible durability. One of these 
cylinders of ten-horse power is only thirty inches long by 
twenty diameter. There is a valve constructed like a safety- 
valve, on which a scale of figures is made. A spring, or 
weight, is placed on any of these, giving any number of 
pounds of water-pressure desired. The pump is kept con- 



DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 463 

stantly in operation. There is a half-inch water-pipe passing 
through the trunnions of the generator horizontally, which 
does not revolve, made tight by stuffing-boxes, and contain- 
ing holes on its upper side about two inches apart, and about 
a sixteenth of an inch in size. The water, passing into the 
generator through this pipe, becomes so highly heated, that 
it foams out of these little nozzles, and, coming in contact 
with the surrounding highly-heated steam, becomes steam 
itself before touching the metal of the generator. Suppose 
it is desired to run at sixty pounds of steam : the water- 
valve is set at this figure. The generator is now heated to a 
degree which will convert the w^ater let into it immediately 
into steam : thus sixty pounds of steam is produced in 
about five seconds. This pressure, being equal to the water- 
pressure, prevents the introduction of any more water ; and, 
there being no w^ater in the generator from which to make 
steam, the steam cannot rise above the sixty pounds, and 
that, too, without regard to the degree of heat in the furnace. 
The two pressures, being thus equally balanced, render ex- 
plosions impossible. Now, as the steam-pressure is reduced 
by use, that remaining lets just water enough into the gene- 
rator to keep up the corresponding pressure, thereby secur- 
ing a steady supply of steam without regard to the quantity 
being used, and limited only by the amount of water a given 
size of cylinder is capable of converting into steam." 

TELEGRAPHY. 

Telegraphic communication began by the use of signals. 
Roman generals and North-American Indians alike availed 
themselves of this convenient method of overcoming distance 
and time. Fires, flags, symbols formed of blocks of wood, 
illuminated letters, figures, telescopes, and mirrors were 
among the means adopted for this purpose. 

The way for the electric telegraph was prepared by the 
discovery, " about the year 1729, that the shock could h(\ 



464 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

transmitted long distances through conducting media with 
great rapidity ; " by the invention of the Leyden jar ; the 
experiments of FrankUn ; " firing alcohol by an electric 
charge, sent through wires, under water, across the Schuyl- 
kill in 1748;" and the Voltaic pile, discovered in 1800. In 
1747, Dr. Watson discovered that " the earth itself and 
intervening bodies of water might be made use of to com- 
plete the electric circuit." The names of Lesage of Geneva, 
Lamond of France, Reizen of Germany, Don Francisco Salva, 
and Sr. Betancourt, are connected with important experi- 
ments extending from 1774 to 1797. On the track of this 
discovery appear the names of Francis Ronalds, England, in 
1816; Harrison G. Dyer, New York, in 1827; and Sommer- 
ing, Germany, beginning his experiments in 1809. 

The discoveries in electro-magnetism, commencing with 
Oersted of Copenhagen in 1819, opened a new era in the 
scientific efforts tending to the solution of this important 
problem. Then appear the names of Schweigger of Halle ; 
Ampere of France; Prof Steinheil of Munich ; Cooke, Wheat- 
stone, Barlow, and William Sturgeon, of England ; all of 
whom made their contributions to the accumulating elec- 
trical thought of the age. 

Another stage of progress is distinctly marked by the 
experiments of Prof Henry, made in Albany, N.Y., in 1828- 
1830, greatly multiplying available magnetic force by the 
use of a covered wire. " The current was so increased in in- 
tensity, that the electric telegraph was at once made practi- 
cable for any distance." Now Baron Schelling of St. Peters- 
burg, Councillor Gauss, and Prof Weber of Gottingen, enter 
the field, bringing their valuable experiments down to 1834. 
In 1836, Prof Daniell, England, discovered the method of 
sustaining a continuous current; and Prof Faraday, Eng- 
land, brought forward the inductive current ; both important 
steps in advance toward the great practical result destined 
to distinguish the age in which we live. 

In 1832, at Havre, on board the packet-ship "Sully," our 



DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 465 

great countryman, Prof. Samuel Finley Bruce Morse, con- 
ceived the true idea of the electro-magnetic telegraph, and 
proceeded at once to make the drawings, which, after the 
most thorough legal sifting, have demonstrated his claim to 
be considered the true inventor of a system of telegraphic 
communication with all the essential apparatus required to 
render electro-magnetic and chemical power available in the 
grand system of telegraphy which now extends throughout 
the world. 

Slowly and carefully Prof Morse advanced in the prepara- 
tion of his machine and in practical experiments ; bringing 
out his invention successfully in New York in 1835, and 
producing communications through a circuit of half a mile. 
He then came before the government for an official recog- 
nition of his great discovery, but shared the usual fate of 
genius, — delays and vexations which seemed to be endless. 
Discouraged at home, he went abroad. England and France 
then had the opportunity of becoming the first great patrons 
of one of the greatest benefactors of the race ; but they 
suffered national prejudice, forms, and doubts to deprive them 
of this honor. Return ing-to his own government, and passing 
through conflicts and trials almost unendurable, he retired, 
on the last night of the session of 1842-1843, in complete 
despair. " But in the morning — the morning of March 4, 
1843 — he was startled with the announcement, that the 
desired aid of Congress had been extended in the midnight 
hour of the expiring session, and thirty thousand dollars 
placed at his disposal for his experimental essay between 
Washington and Baltimore. In 1844, the work was com- 
pleted, and demonstrated to the world the practicability and 
the utility of the Morse system of electro-magnetic tele- 
graphs." * 

In consequence of these vexatious delays, he was antici- 
pated, in the production of the first actual working telegraph, 
by Prof C. A. Steinheil of Munich, in 1836, It was brought 

* A]>pleton's Cyclopoedia. 
59 



466 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

forward under the patronage of the Bavarian Government, 
and extended twelve miles, using the earth to complete the 
circuit. 

About the same time, Mr. William F. Cooke, a student at 
Heidelberg, taking his hint from the experiments of Prof. 
Moncke, commenced a series of experiments, which, through 
the assistance of Prof Wheatstone, resulted in the English 
telegraph. The electro-chemical telegraph was brought to 
this country in 1849 by the inventor, Mr. Alexander Bain. 
It was a valuable improvement ; but for legal reasons, and 
by arrangement, it has been incorporated with the working 
system of Morse. Prof Wheatstone has continued his labors 
with important results. In the mean time, " Mr. Alfred Vail 
of New York, M. Froment in France, Royal E. House of 
Vermont, David E. Hughes of Kentucky, and Jacob Bret 
in Great Britain," invented printing-telegraphs, which are 
doubtless of great value in the art. The system of Mr. 
House " is regarded as one of the most wonderful and com- 
plete of the extraordinary inventions developed by the tele- 
graph." To him belongs the honor of the first printed 
despatch ever produced upon a telegraph-line. It was sent 
in the autumn of 1847 from Cincinnati to Jeffersonville. 

Experiments are, of course, rapidly progressing. Defects 
are eliminated and excellences combined, while the invention 
of Prof Morse remains the grand basis of the whole, and the 
great practical method of telegraphy for the largest portions 
of the world. Indeed, it is a most unusual thing for any 
original inventor to include so nearly and so fully all the 
fundamental principles of a great public improvement as did 
Prof Morse. The civihzed world combines to recosrnize his 
claim, and extend to him the highest honors. From the 
sovereigns and governments of France, Russia, Prussia, Swe- 
den, Belgium, Holland, Austria, Sardinia, Tuscany, Rome, 
Denmark, Spain, and Turkey, and from citizens of England, 
he has received testimonials of gratitude such as have never 
been the lot of any American citizen. 



DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 467 

To him also belongs the honor of originating the sub- 
marine telegraph. He " laid the first submarine telegraph- 
lines in New- York Harbor in the autumn of 1842, and 
received at the time, from the American Institute, a gold 
medal for that achievement ; " and it is claimed that the first 
suggestion of the Atlantic telegraph was made " in a letter 
from Mr. Morse to the Secretary of the United-States Treas- 
ury, dated Aug. 10, 1843." * 

I mentioned the American trans-continental railroad as one 
of the two greatest enterprises of the age. The Atlantic 
telegraph is unquestionably the other. 

From the first successful experiments of Mr. Morse in New- 
York Harbor, submarine telegraphy went on rapidly. The 
great leading mind in the struggles of twelve years, extend- 
ing from 1854 to July 27, 1866, resulting in placing the Old 
and the New World in almost instantaneous connection, was 
Cyrus W. Field, — a name which must ever stand high, not 
merely in the annals of America, but of the world. Dis- 
tinguished no less for his humility than for his high sense of 
justice, he awards to the great scientific men and noble 
patrons of progress in England the highest praise for their 
indispensable co-operation and unparalleled exertions uniting 
to secure for this great providential movement complete suc- 
cess ; but the world combines to place the crown upon the 
head of our distinguished fellow-countryman, Cyrus W. Field. 

It is now wholly unnecessary to trace the steps by which 
this grand result was reached. It is enough, that, through- 
out the length and breadth of our land, we can read at our 
homes the great events transpiring in Europe on the same 
day of tlieir occurrence, and even in anticipation of time 
by the clock. 

When we consider the genius by which this result has 
been achieved, and think of Franklin, Morse, and Field, with 
their great co-laborers in the field of discovery ; when we 

* For a full and valuable history of the telegraph, I refer the reader to Appleton'a 
Cyclopaedia, articles " Telegraph " and " Morse." 



468 THE GREAT REPUBLIC, 

see the gathering neighborhood of nations, and the grand 
unity of the race coming out of the confusion and strife 
of six thousand years, — we are constrained to exclaim, in 
the language of the first telegraphic despatch in the world's 
history, penned by an American woman, " What hath God 
wrought ! " 

Up to 1866, there were sixty-one imjDortant submarine or 
telegraph cables, amounting to ten thousand two hundred 
and thirty-one miles. The first commenced operation in 
1851 ; but they had, at the above date, accomplished jointly 
three hundred and thirteen years of telegraphic work. 

Look, now, at the results of railroad and telegraphic com- 
munication, and behold the literal, of which the spiritual 
was seen by our great Christian poet a hundred years in 
advance : — 

" Mountains rise, and oceans roll, 
To sever us, in vain." 



ARCHITECTURE. 

Civil, military, and naval architecture may be regarded as 
progressive in the United States. It is treated as belonging 
to the useful rather than the fine arts. The utilitarian ten- 
dency of the republican mind shows itself in this depart- 
ment of industry. Our best architects study the practical 
and useful first, the elegant and beautiful if they have time. 
Many of them are good mechanics, have built houses for the 
convenience of poor men ; and the developments of genius, 
lifting them above the toil of handicraft, bringing them into 
the sphere of the beautiful, have generally been amid the 
limitations and discipline of poverty and the constant demand 
for cheap plans and low prices. 

The achievements of our clever artists are, on this account, 
the more creditable, and, at the same time, the more useful. 
We, moreover, harmonize with the tendencies of our times. 
The really grand in architecture seems to belong to other 



DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 469 

ages. The obelisks, pyramids, temples, palaces, and tombs 
of Egypt will never be reproduced nor imitated in America 
or elsewhere. The magnificent temples of India, and the 
grand and imposing structures of Greece and Rome, belong 
wholly to the past. Paganism could exceed Christianity in 
the enormous wastes of power which struggled to symbolize 
the greatness of their conceptions of the gods. It has long 
since exhausted its resources in these efforts, and lapsed into 
barbarism in its attempts at architecture as well as its modes 
of living. 

The early Christians introduced in their splendid cathedrals 
a much purer ideal of God and worship, but gave undue 
position to ornaments in their church architecture and dec- 
orations. This era also, we believe, has departed, not to re- 
turn. There will, probably, be no other specimens of imposing 
grandeur and inspiring beauty thrown around the simple 
worship of the Lord Jesus, at all comparable to those which 
still remain in Europe the admiration and wonder of trav- 
ellers. 

The movement in this department of art is away from the 
physical toward the spiritual. Hence simplicity and beauty 
have taken the place of grandeur and extravagance ; a fact 
which shows clearly that America is in harmony with the 
age. The manifestations of tyranny, which absorb the toil 
and means of a generation of millions for the aggrandize- 
ment of the sovereign, are superseded by the Christian utili- 
ties, which distribute resources of enjoyment among the 
masses. Pyramids and cathedrals are the types of the dead 
past ; railroads, steamboats, telegraphs, chaste, convenient 
church-edifices, and halls of learning, the types of the pres- 
ent. We have no lamentation for the departure of the 
symbols of despotism, paganism, and corrupted Christianity, 
but rather glory in the flict that the Great Republic leads the 
world in the direction of the useful, the beautiful, and the 
true. This is the direction of democratic freedom and pure 
Christianity. 



470 THE GREAT KEPTJBLIC, 

In the mean time, under the control of simple good sense, 
our artists and artisans, acting in harmony, are keeping pace 
with the advancing wealth and culture of our people. 
Palatial residences, fine public buildings, and especially 
beautiful houses of state and of worship, are rising up rapidly 
around us. We can, it is true, show but few specimens of 
pure Doric, Ionic, or Corinthian ; but we have preserved and 
used something of the spirit of them all, while the semi- 
Gothic, Old English, Romantique, and various composites, are 
giving an air of wealth and taste to our church and other 
edifices. 

PAINTING. 

We are not disposed to make pretentious claims of prog- 
ress in the fine arts in America. This would be absurd, as 
we are yet in the infancy of national life. We are quite con- 
tent with the simple truth, which shows a real and relative 
development of taste worthy of our land and our freedom. 

In portraits, we began in Boston as early as 1667 ; but, ac- 
cording to Mr. Tuckerman, the colony now known as Rhode 
Island was the scene of our earliest art.* Here Smybert began 
his work, and by a copy of a cardinal by Vandyke, placed 
in Yale-College Gallery, kindled the fires of genius in the 
soul of young Alston, so famous in a later day. In Pennsyl- 
vania, Benjamin West arose from obscurity to become the 
great representative of American genius, and give distinction 
to our country by such productions of his master skill as 
" Christ Rejected," and " Christ healing the Sick." 

Jarvis, the eccentric nephew of John Wesley, came for- 
ward to attract attention. His " Perry at Lake Erie," and 
numberless other productions, combined with his genial social 
.qualities to make him a general favorite. The " Ariadne " of 
Vanderlyn was also " regarded as a miracle of beauty." 

* It gives us pleasure to refer to "American Artist-Life," by Mr. H. T. Tuckerman, — 
a new work of great value. We are under special obligations to the publishers, G. P 
Putnam & Son, i'or t'le use of the j roof-sheets in advance of publication. 



DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 471 

" Henry Inman, than whom no votary of the pencil in 
America had more of the true traits of artist-genius, whose 
few refined and graceful compositions, and portraits of 
Wordsworth, Chalmers, Macaulay, and others, amply attest 
his skill and originality, was cut off in the prime of his years 
and his faculties. Thomas Cole, a landscape-painter, as truly 
alive to the significance of our scenery as a subject of art 
as is Bryant as one of poetry, and who united graphic pow- 
ers with poetical feeling, had but just reached his meridian 
when he passed away." * 

Charles Wilson Peale, an honest mechanic, found the spirit 
of art stirring within him, and became a student of West ; 
rose to distinction as a portrait-painter, and contributed much 
to the progress of art and natural history by his museum in 
Philadelphia, and his influence in founding the Pennsyl- 
vania Academy of Fine Arts, to seventeen annual exhibitions 
of which he was a contributor. 

Rembrandt Peale, second son of Charles Wilson, added to 
the reputation of his family and his country by his brilliant 
talents as a painter. His " Roman Daughter," " Court of 
Death," and portrait of Washington, gave him an enviable 
fame as a spirited idealist as well as a truthful delineator. 

The name of Charles Loring Elliott, born in Scipio, N.Y., 
1812, has become historical in American art. He is justly 
celebrated for the accuracy of his likenesses. Fraser, Trum- 
bull, Stuart, and Durand have also added lustre to the art- 
fame of their country. 

Frederick Edwin Church was born at Hartford, Conn., in 
1826. His spirited drawings and brilliant colorings have raised 
him to the highest position as a representative of American 
art at home and abroad. His famous view of Niagara Falls, 
in the judgment of English critics, " in the rush of the waters 
and the fine atmospheric effects, realizes the idea of sound 
as well as of motion, and has done more than any other 
of its class to impress Europeans with a knowledge and 

* Tnckermun's American Artist-Life, p. 10. 



472 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

appreciation of American art." * But we cannot give even 
a catalogue of our deserving historical portrait and landscape 
painters. 

" Within the last few years, the advance of public taste 
and the increased recognition of art in this country have 
been among the most interesting phenomena of the times. 
A score of eminent and original landscape-painters have 
achieved the highest reputations, private collections of 
pictures have become a new social attraction, exhibitions of 
works of art have grown lucrative and popular, buildings 
expressly for studios have been erected, sales of pictures 
by auction have produced unprecedented sums of money, 
art-shops are a delectable feature of Broadway, artist-recep- 
tions are favorite re-unions of the winter, and a splendid 
edifice has been completed devoted to the Academy, and 
owing its erection to public munificence ; while a school 
of design is in successful operation at the Cooper Institute. 
Nor is this all : at Rome, Paris, Florence, and Dusseldorf, as 
well as at Chicago, Albany, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Boston, and 
New York, there are native ateliers, schools, or collections, 
the fame whereof has raised our national character, and en- 
hanced our intellectual resources as a people." f 

SCULPTURE. 

In this department of the fine arts, American genius has 
reached a very high distinction. A few names are sufficient 
to represent the progress of our brief history. 

Horatio Greenousrh was a native of Boston, born in 1805. 
He was a natural sculptor from his boyhood. While a col- 
lege-student, he formed the model after which Bunker-hill 
Monument was constructed. In 1825, he was in Rome. 
Here he enjoyed the instructions of Thorwaldsen, but learned 
more from his fellow-students. At Boston again, in 1826, we 

* Appleton's Cyclopaedia, art. " Church, Frederick Edwin." 
t Tuckerman, p. 12. 



DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 473 

find him modelling busts of John Quincy Adams, Chief Jus- 
tice Marshall, and others. But soon again he is in Italy, with' 
his residence in Florence. His first marked encouragement 
came from James Fennimore Cooper, who commissioned him 
to execute the " Charity Cherubs." This act of Mr. Cooper 
was highly appreciated, and gratefully acknowledged. From 
the example and influence of this distinguished American he 
received numerous orders from his countrymen for busts and 
other pieces of statuary, the most important of which is the 
colossal statue of Washington, now standing in the eastern 
grounds of the Capitol. A memorial of this worthy artist, 
by Mr, H, T. Tuckerman, has done much to preserve the 
record of his labors and moral worth. He says, " Horatio 
Greenough left a void not only in the thin rank of our sculp- 
tors, but among the foremost of Art's intelligent and eloquent 
advocates and expositors. Not soon will be forgotten his 
copious ideas, independent spirit, and genial fellowship. No 
American artist has written more effectually of the claims 
and defects of art-culture among us." 

Hiram Powers was born in Woodstock, Vt., July 29, 1825. 
His early life was that of an ordinary American fiirmer's boy. 
At length he worked his way to Cincinnati, where he showed 
his mechanical genius and business capacity in connection 
with a clock-maker. A German sculptor awakened in him 
the desire to be an artist, and taught him to model in plaster. 
Then, for seven years, he had the charge of the Western 
Museum in the wax-work department. In 1835, he began 
at Washino-ton a successful career in modelling; busts of dis- 
tinguished men. Then, under the patronage of Nicholas 
Longworth, he went to Italy; since which, Florence has been 
his home. He now needs neither eulogist nor monument. 
His " Eve," " Greek Slave," and " Fisher-Boy," with numer- 
ous other miniature works, give him a world-wide fame, and 
reflect the highest honor upon his country. He has led the 
way in departing from the ideal, and embodjdng in marble a 
loving; devotion to Nature and truth. 



474 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

Thomas Crawford, a native of New- York City, was bom 
an artist, March 22, 1814. He began to draw and sketch as 
soon as he was able to move a pencil. His studies were con- 
ducted first with a wood-engraver; then with Messrs. Frazer 
and Launitz, monumental sculptors, in his native city ; and 
at the school of the National Academy of Design. After pro- 
ducing indications of talent in portrait busts, he was found 
at Rome in the summer of 1835. Here he spent several 
years of the most devoted study and labor in the studio of 
Thorwaldsen. During this time, his almost incredible devo- 
tion and splendid genius produced many fine pieces, and 
raised the hopes of his friends to a very high degree. In 
1839, he brought out his celebrated " Orpheus." This secured 
him the patronage of the Hon. Charles Sumner in an order 
from Boston for a copy in marble, which, exhibited with 
other works from Mr. Crawford, formed the opening to a 
career of the greatest success. His studios in the Plaza 
Barberini were highly attractive to men of genius from all 
countries. His colossal equestrian statue of Washington, 
twenty-five feet high, for the State of Virginia ; his grand 
historical and allegorial pieces; his figure of Liberty, in group 
with allegorical representations of the Arts, Commerce, and 
Civilization, for the new Capitol, — are works of the highest 
merit. Finally, the colossal statue of the Genius of America 
is a fitting crown for the Capitol at Washington and the 
genius of the artist. 

I cannot deny myself the pleasure of mentioning one 
other name, — Mr. E. D. Palmer. In the city of Albany is a 
quiet studio which any gentleman of taste may feel himself 
privileged to enter. It is the home of calm thought, pure 
sentiment, bold conception, and chaste imagination. It is 
where the artist studies and toils from pure affection for the 
beautiful and the true. It is where the "Infant Ceres" throws 
out the light of a soul through marble features; where "The 
Morning and Evening Star " shine in bass-relief with a soft 
radiance indicating the very incarnation of light; where the 



DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 475 

" Spirit's Flight," with the eyes of the mother resting on the 
symbol of the atonement, and a true child "full of graceful 
simplicity," fixes the gaze of tenderness and love. Then look 
at the "Indian Girl." She has found a crucifix, and holds it 
carefully and inquiringly in her right hand : in her left, 
loosely held as if forgotten, are the feathers gathered for the 
adornment of native grace, — beautiful, touching, spiritual. 
There the " White Captive" seems ready to speak, while you 
are mute with sympathy and admiration. " The moment 
chosen by the sculptor is evidently that when the full con- 
sciousness of her awful fate is awakened, — perhaps the 
morning after the capture, when, no longer fearing pursuit, 
the savages despoil their beautiful victim, and gloat over her 
anguish. She is no longer breathlessly hurried onward, but 
standing there in the wilderness, desolate and nude, realizes 
through every vein and nerve the horrors of her situation ; 
but virgin purity and Christian faith assert themselves in 
her soul, and chasten the agony they cannot wholly subdue. 
Accordingly, while keen distress marks her expression, an 
inward comfort, an elevated faith, combines with and sub- 
limates the fear and pain. Herein is the triumph of the 
artist. The ' White Captive ' illustrates the power and 
inevitable victory of Christian civilization. Not in the flice 
alone, but in every contour of the figure, in the expression 
of the feet as well as the lips, the same physical subjugation, 
and moral self-control, and self-concentration are apparent. 
The ' beauty and anguish walking hand in hand the down- 
ward road to death ' are upraised, intensified, and hallowed 
by that inward power born of culture, and that elevated trust 
which comes from religious faith." * 

These and many other works of exquisite art are only in 
part the outward manifestations of the inner life of thought 
and feeling of our fellow-citizen, — Mr. E. D. Palmer, too 
diffident to allow himself to be named, and yet so far almost 
unconsciously demonstrative as to add lustre to the future 
of American art. 

* Tuckevinan's American Artist, "Palmer." 



476 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

Compelled as we are to pause here, we can only ask our 
readers to stand reverently before the great Creator of mind 
and genius, and adore the wisdom, the power and love, so 
richly blended in these splendid creations. 

PHOTOGRAPHY. 

This means the art of depicting objects by means of 
light. Priestley seems to have been the first to discover by 
chemical experiments that this was possible. The experi- 
ments of Schule, a Swedish philosopher, who shared with 
Priestley the honor of discovering oxygen gas, tended further 
to demonstrate this possibility. The names of Count Rum- 
ford, Mr. Wedgwood, and Sir Humphry Davy, are also men- 
tioned as havins: made valuable contributions to discov- 
eries in this field. Daguerre in France in 1839, and, about 
the same time, Talbot in England, invented methods "for the 
fixation of the images of the camera obscura;" and the results 
were deemed of great importance. The process came to be 
called the daguerrotype, in honor of the distinguished French 
discoverer ; and the pictures of outward objects were exceed- 
ingly sharp and fine. 

It is, however, to Dr. Draper of the New-York University 
that the world is indebted for the discovery that likenesses 
could be taken by light from the living presence. Dr. Draper 
announced his discovery in the London, Edinburgh, and 
Dublin philosophical magazines ; and it is believed that he 
carried the art to so high a degree of perfection, that some 
of his portraits have not been excelled. " This great im- 
provement was accomplished at a time when the inventor of 
the daguerrotype had given it up as impossible." * 

From this point, experiments have advanced until photog- 
raphy has become an immense business in the United States 
and elsewhere. The various forms of the art are so well 
known as hardly to need description. Ambrotype and pho- 

. * Appleton's Cyclopaedia, art. " Photography." 



DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 477 

tograph portraits have nearly superseded the old daguerro- 
types in popular use, but not in real artistic perfection. 

The result of the whole is to give to people of the most 
ordinary means the luxury of likenesses painted by the sun, 
which preserve the features of friends living and dead. The 
discovery is, therefore, of great value. The miniature in oil 
was so costly, that only the few could afford it ; hence pho- 
tography is a very large accession to the happiness and 
improvement of the masses, as well as the wealthy and most 
highly cultivated. 

It has come to be applied to depicting landscapes and copy- 
ing manuscripts with great distinctness and beauty, and is a 
grand accession to the convenience and perfection of the 
portrait-painter and engraver. Large as is the field of this 
art, its applications are destined to be still farther extended. 
It undoubtedly deserves to rank high among the astonishing 
discoveries of our own eventful times. 

Thus have we endeavored to present the development of 
learning and the arts in America, that our readers may see 
how high above mere human possibility the mind of the 
Great Republic has been raised by the direct power of God. 



CHAPTER VIIL 

DEVELOPMENT OF MANHOOD AND HUMANITY. 

" The Americans are a very old and a very enlightened people, who have fallen upon 
a new and unbounded country, where they may extend themselves at pleasure, and which 
they may fertilize without difficulty. This state of things is without a parallel in the 
history of the world." — De Tocqueville. 

There is a higher, more important progress than the merely 
physical, — a greatness that rises above the greatness of 
wealth and commerce, and quite as far above the merely 
intellectual. 

If the effect of climate or the configuration of our conti- 
nent had been to make us earthly and sensual, and, as a 
nation, we had become only large consumers and large tra- 
ders, the period of development in our history had been only 
the animalization of the race with an enormous growth of 
individualism, which would have made us the contempt and 
scorn of all pure intelligences on earth and in heaven. The 
Western continent, it has been noticed, is concave toward the 
sky ; while the Eastern is convex. Our rivers run from the 
outer rims toward the great inward trough, and so seek 
the sea by the way of the Mississippi ; therefore, it has been 
very learnedly explained, our minds run downward, earth- 
ward, and we are material, naturally and necessarily mate- 
rialists : while the land of the Europeans and Asiatics arches 
towards the centre, and their waters are drained each way 
towards the oceans; therefore the Europeans and Asiatics 
by great physiological laws look up, and are inevitably 
religious, superstitious. 

478 



DEVELOPMENT OF MANHOOD AND HUMANITY. 479 

If this argument were not a most ridiculous conceit, and 
therefore utterly unworthy of serious consideration, and if 
the tendencies were exactly what this physical theory of the 
moral man assumes, we have a strong and triumphant answer 
in the facts ; for, despite the convexity of the East and the 
concavity of the West, materialism and sensuality are rank 
and extended in both hemispheres. Even the present forms 
of religion are compelled to resist the downward tendency 
of fallen human nature, everywhere, by the most heroic 
exertions ; an era of rationalistic scepticism and another of 
kindred ritualism not unfrequently following rapidly on the 
track of great religious reformations. 

TRUE MANHOOD. 

The great truth is, that, in the Orient as well as the Occi- 
dent, men can be good and great only by aid from above. 
Under the action of this inspiration, selfishness and corrup- 
tion, there as here, recede, and give place to all the en- 
nobling feelings and acts of regenerated humanity. There 
and here, human pride and ambition substitute the material 
for the spiritual, the worship of the fine arts for the worship 
of the great Architect of the heavens and the earth, of 
church architecture instead of the Holy Being to whom 
these stately, magnificent edifices are consecrated. In Amer- 
ica, just as much, and no more, must be conceded. With- 
out the regeneration and the new life, we are earthly and 
sensual, exactly like Europeans ; and tend to idolatry in 
some form, like the Asiatics: while, just like both, under 
the power of the great spiritual resurrection, despite the 
concavity of our part of the globe, our nations are retined 
and exalted ; and we rise in the scale of greatness to the 
highest spirituality and benevolence. One grand announce- 
ment includes us all. " Ye must be born again" reveals at 
once the reasons for our despair and our hope. 

In the new moral creation, we have a marked development 



480 THE GREAT HEPUBLIC. 

of the native capabilities of man, and learn how the disabili- 
ties of our race may be effectually helped, and our inherent 
vices eradicated. There man begins to live for man in 
distinction from self It cannot be controverted, just so far 
as the power of experimental religion extends in reforming 
and moulding the nature of a man, he moves from littleness 
to greatness, from selfishness to beneficence ; humility takes 
the place of pride ; chastity, the place of lust ; honesty, the 
place of fraud ; love, the place of hatred ; truth, the place of 
falsehood ; industry and enterprise, the place of idleness and 
decay. These are all great elements of true manhood ; 
and the growth is so visible, that a man who denies it simply 
condemns himself for absurdity or dulness, narrowness or 
falsehood. 

Just as in individuals, so in nations. So far as the regene- 
ration of human nature advances, so far the nation rises in 
character and moral power. For all great moral achieve- 
ments of the race, sin is the infancy of a people, righteousness 
their manhood. Virtue begins to reveal its strength under 
the cross, and piety unfolds its power in the exercise of true 
faith, — "faith that works by love, and purifies the heart." 

True manhood appears in its types. The first Adam was 
a man combining the powers and susceptibilities directly 
created by infinite perfection. Ills descendants were less 
than men by all their infidelity, disloyalty, depravity, false- 
hood, sorrows, groans, and dying. The second Adam was a 
man, — a God, it is certain, but nevertheless a man, a typal 
man ; and as the race became less than men by receding 
from the first typal man, so they become men just as they 
approach the second. In his fullest form, the second man 
was the Lord from heaven ; and thus the divine in union 
with the human becomes the highest type of manhood. Just 
as the human race becomes imbued with the grace and power 
of God under the power of the second man, who becomes to 
believing sinners " a quickening spirit," do they approach this 
highest type of manhood. 



DEVELOPMENT OF MANHOOD AND HUMANITY. 481 

The true manhood of a nation will therefore be, first the 
regenerated manhood of the Fall ; then, so far as the new 
life succeeds, the restored manhood of Eden ; and thence the 
developed manhood of the old in the new creation. 

Let it be remarked, then, as a matter of fact, that the grow- 
ing greatness of the American nation is, so far as it has 
advanced, the progressive development of the new manhood. 
This is seen in the individual instances of reformation in the 
domestic Edens, which come of the restoration of love ; the 
social elevation, which makes vice disgraceful, and installs 
virtue and piety as the dominant forces of reason; and in the 
grand uprising of a whole people, courting martyrdom to 
honor and secure a great principle. 

We must reckon as the result of the regeneration, not only 
the persons in whom it is developed as a new life, but those 
in whom any divine influences have found room and liberty 
to begin their work. The general faith in the being of God ; 
the public universal acknowledgment that Jesus is the 
Christ, that he is the only hope of the world ; the condemna- 
tion of professing Christians for their improprieties and sins; 
and the universal homage paid to goodness, with the equally 
imiversal acknowledgment of the duty and necessity of 
reformation in order to perfect happiness and safety, — must 
be referred to the same source. These all broaden and 
heiarhten the manhood of our nation. Then comes the 
elevating power of science, confirming the truth and 
reflecting the glory of Christianity ; then the spirit of the 
press, imbued with the life of a great regeneration, moving 
the world mightily God-ward ; then the broad expansion of 
liberty, accepting and proclaiming the universal brotherhood 
of man ; finally the uplifting of the lowest, and the conse- 
quent rising of the whole to the sphere of power which 
reveals the inevitable, the indestructible, the endlessly-pro- 
gressive, in the national life. This era of the Great Republic 
dawns upon us to-day. 

It would hnppen, of course, in the coming of generations. 



482 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

under such quickening influences, that individual minds, 
highly susceptible and broadly formed, would grow to dis- 
tinguished greatness. Hence, though not thoroughly Chris- 
tian, yet reached and stimulated by Christian forces, Franklin 
and Webster rose in statesmanship above Mirabeau and 
Talleyrand. Hence Washington and Lincoln, deeply imbued 
with the religious spirit, were greater than Jefferson and 
Calhoun. Thus Williams and Edwards, Marshall and Mc- 
Lean, Judson and Olin, rose higher in historic renown than 
other men of equal mental greatness, and approached very 
nearly to the sublime purity and majestic strength of true 
manhood. But the elevation of the common mind by the 
power of a pervading Christian life, until justice is enthroned 
by the will of the people, will be a broader, greater fact. 
From this epoch in the nation's history, the approach to 
typal manhood will be more rapid and more thoroughly 
sustained. 

ASYLUMS FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB. 

Works of humanity follow promptly the development of 
true manhood under the benevolent influence of Christianity. 
The best Christian minds of all countries, from mere love of 
the race, inquire anxiously after the welfare of the suffering 
and unfortunate. " Thou slialt love thy neighbor as thyself" 
is the second great commandment of our beneficent Christi- 
anity ; and the law of action toward the needy is distinctly 
announced by our Saviour, — "All things whatsoever ye 
would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." 
Not merely the authority of these commands, but the actual 
feeling of regenerated natures, and the longing desires of 
enlightened good men in the spirit of a religion of love, 
move them to make efforts to relieve distress, to exalt char- 
acter, and enlarge the sphere and amount of positive enjoy- 
ment and usefulness. Hence it is that institutions for the 
education of the deaf and dumb, the blind, the insane, the 



DEVELOPMENT OF MANHOOD AND HUMANITY. 483 

intemperate, and the idiot, arise in Christian countries, and 
are not found in heathen lands. 

As is usual in all great developments of civilization, the 
first efforts made for the deaf and dumb were crude and un- 
satisfactory, — a kind of feeling around in the dark after facts 
and agencies which only revealed their dim outlines. The 
code of Justinian held deaf-mutes incapable of the legal 
management of their affairs ; and the wisest philosophers 
regarded the calamities of these unfortunates irremediable. 
In the middle ages, they were debarred from the rights of 
feudal succession. 

To Pedro Ponce, a Benedictine monk of Spain, belongs the 
honor of one of the first recorded attempts to educate the 
deaf and dumb. He died in 1504. Bouet followed, a half- 
century later. The Germans claim the precedence of a full 
century for efforts attended with success recorded by Rodolph 
Agricola, and thus make the successful endeavors of Parch, a 
clergyman of Brandenburg, to educate his deaf-mute daugh- 
ter by pictures, contemporary with those of Ponce. In the 
seventeenth century, small advance is asserted in this humane 
endeavor. The great error, however, was in attempting to 
educate by articulation ; and it was reserved for the Abbe 
de I'Epee of France to originate the great movement which 
resulted in the use of signs, the natural language of deaf- 
mutes, and to found the first institution for their education. 
From this went out suggestions and teachers which founded 
schools in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Holland, and Spain. 
"It was only from this time" (1755 to 1760) " that the duty 
of educating them began to take hold of the public con- 
science." About the same time, the efforts of Thomas Braid- 
wood in Scotland, and Samuel Ileinecke in Saxony, came to 
public notice. 

Our own system was brought from the school of De I'Epee, 
in 1816, by our distinguished citizen, Thomas H. Gallaudet, 
whose equally distinguished son has done so much to perfect 
and extend the system in America. 



484 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

As late as 1850, there were only a hundred and eighty 
institutions for the deaf and dumb in the world, numbering 
about six thousand pupils. There were about eighty small 
schools in Germany, forty-five in France, and twenty-two in 
the British Isles. 

Our highly-valued pioneer institution in Hartford was 
opened in 1817. The next began in New York, in the same 
year; and the next in Pennsylvania, in 1820. Kentucky fol- 
lowed in 1823, Ohio in 1829, and Virginia in 1839. In 1834, 
we had six institutions, thirty-four teachers, and four hun- 
dred and sixty-six pupils ; in 1860, twenty-two institutions, 
a hundred and thirty teachers, and two thousand pupils. 
It is easy to see that the work must be largely extended, as, 
in 1860, the number of deaf-mutes had reached fifteen thou- 
sand and seventy-seven. 

These institutions cost the several States about three 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars annually ; while over a 
million and a half has been invested in buildings, grounds, 
&c. The Columbia Institution in Washington is an ad- 
vance movement designed further to perfect the system, and 
extend to these unfortunates the benefits of a college-course. 



ASYLUMS FOR THE BLIND. 

The appeal of the blind to our sympathies and humanity 
is perhaps still more touching. Shut out as they are from 
the world of external beauty ; denied the pleasure of looking 
upon the landscape with its hill and dale, its flowers and 
fruit ; not permitted to see the countenances of those they 
love, nor read a line of all the world of literature so acces- 
sible to us, — it would be really strange if Christian benefi- 
cence should make no efforts to improve their condition. 

" L'Hopital Imperial des Quinze Vingts was founded by 
St. Louis in 1260, and still exists. It, however, makes no 
efforts to instruct its three hundred inmates. Valentine 
Haii}^, receiving his hints from the success of the Abbe de 



DEVELOPMENT OF MANHOOD AND HUMANITY. 485 

I'Epee in relief of the deaf-mutes, determined to see if the 
blind could not be aided by the sense of touch. Letters, 
maps, and finally books, were printed in relief: blind children 
touched them, and soon commenced to read. 

This good work began to assume form in Paris in 1784, 
and in Liverpool in 1791; extending through France and 
England, and finally through all Europe. 

In the United States, in 1860, 12,635 were blind; being 
one to every 2,470 of the whole population. This, however, 
is only two-fifths of the number in Great Britain and Ireland, 
and three-fifths of the number in France. The causes of 
this diiference in our favor have not yet been so well defined 
as to belonu!: to historical record.>-j. But we have sufficient 
numbers to excite our deepest interest and most liberal ef- 
forts. 

Our institutions for the blind began in Boston in 1833. 
In 1860, they numbered twenty-three, and a thousand one 
hundred and twenty-six pupils and inmates ; and so sure is 
the progress, that we may regard it as morally certain, that 
this unfortunate class will be well provided for by the provi- 
dent wisdom of our Christian States. 

The culture of so many good minds, otherwise completely 
dormant, is not only humane as a relief to deprivation and 
suffering, but a clear gain to the world. The Bible is the 
great book of the blind ; and it is intensely interesting to see 
with what fixed attention they trace, by the sense of touch, 
the name and revelations of God, and the plan of redemption 
by Jesus Christ. 

The educated blind manifest great love of music, and 
some of them considerable talent. They sing, and touch the 
instrumental keys and strings, with a delicacy and tender- 
ness quite peculiar to themselves ; while their cheerful piety 
very largely sustains the Christian hope which founded their 
institutions. Surely no philanthropy rises to a nobler eleva- 
tion than that which becomes " eyes to the blind." 



486 THE GEE AT KEPUBLIC. 



ASYLUMS FOR THE INSANE. 

Perhaps no sufferers appeal more piteously to the Chris- 
tian philanthropist than the insane. It is amazing to see 
how long they were considered and treated as beyond the 
reach of remedy, mad enemies of all, fit only to be shut 
up within dark prisons and darker cells, under control of 
physical power only. God only knows what tortures have 
been endured from this sad mistake, what rage and horror 
have resulted from a sense of injustice upon the part of 
those who were only partially insane, having sense enough 
of conscious right to make the wrongs of imprisonment 
and personal abuse severe and dreadful. It is hardly yet a 
hundred years since the light of true reason began to dawn 
upon the problem, " Can any thing be done to ameliorate the 
condition of the insane ? " 

The first movement in this direction was a general cura- 
tive hospital in Philadelphia, instituted by philanthropists, 
and incorporated in 1751. The charter, under the title of 
" the constitutors of the Pennsylvania Hospital," provided 
for " the reception and cure of lunatics." The hospital was 
opened on Feb. 11, 1752; and thenceforward one of its 
departments was specially appropriated to that class of j^a- 
tients. 

To Virginia belongs the honor of establishing the first 
institution exclusively for the improvement of the insane- 
Under an act of incorporation, passed Nov. 10, 1769, a hos- 
pital was opened at Williamsburg about Sept. 14, 1773. In 
the war, the buildings were occupied as barracks for the 
colonial troops ; but, after the war, they were restored to 
their legitimate use. 

The New-York Hospital was chartered by the Earl of 
Dunmore in 1771. It was opened Jan. 3, 1791 ; and insane 
patients were admitted in 1797. These w^ere all the formal 
efforts made for this humane purpose before the beginning 
of the nineteenth century ; and " the character of the treat- 



DEVELOPMENT OF MANHOOD AND HUMANITY. 487 

ment was more custodial than curative." Still they were 
beginnings of great historical value, as they indicate the 
genesis and growth of philanthropic feeling and inquiry in 
this important direction. 

In 1791, the benevolent Dr. Pinel, amid the horrors of the 
French Revolution, gave his thoughts anxiously to the relief 
of maniacs. '• He was connected with the Bicetre Hopital, 
in which many of the insane were confined in cells, and 
loaded with manacles and chains. After repeated solicita- 
tions, he at length obtained permission from the public au- 
thorities to remove these torturing implements of bodily 
restraint. He commenced by relieving an English captain 
who had been chained for forty years. The result was so 
favorable, that he relieved eleven others in the coarse of the 
day, and, in a few days, forty-one more. Thus began a move- 
ment of humanity which spread rapidly over Europe and 
America, and which, in the relief it has extended and the 
blessings it has conferred, has had no parallel in the history 
of Christian civilization. 

About the same date, WiUiam Fuke, of York, England, in- 
augurated a more humane treatment for the insane by found- 
ing the Friends' Retreat for the Insane at York, opened 
in 1796. 

In 1808, a separate building for the insane was erected at 
the New- York Hospital. 

In 1797, seven acres of land were given to the State of 
Maryland by Mr. Jeremiah Yellot of Baltimore, " on con- 
dition that the government should found a hospital for the 
treatment of insanity and general diseases." This institution 
was not opened until 1816. 

The Friends of Philadelphia "formed an association in 
1812; obtained a charter; erected a building near the vil- 
lage of Frankford, but now within the limits of the city of 
Philadelphia ; and under the title, ' Asylum for the Relief of 
Persons deprived of the Use of their Reason,' the institution 
was opened in May, 1816." 



488 THE GREAT KEPUBLIC. 

The McLean Asylum for the Insane, a branch of the 
Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, was opened on 
the 6th of October, 1818. 

Up to 1830, we had five insane asylums. The Blooming- 
dale Asylum, New York, dates in 1821 ; the asylums at 
Hartford, Conn., and at Lexington, Ky., 1824 ; Stanton, Va., 
and Columbia, S.C, 1828 : since which period these institu- 
tions have extended rapidly throughout the States, regarded 
everywhere as indispensable to Christian civilization. 

As a material portion of the history of this humane move- 
ment, we mention with high satisfaction the efforts of Miss 
Dorothea L. Dix to improve the whole system for the treat- 
ment of the insane. Her enlightened, self-sacrificing, and 
successful endeavors place her among the foremost philan- 
thropists of her sex and age. Her name and acts deserve 
to be written in letters of gold, and transmitted to coming 
generations. 

In the mean time, visits to the hospitals of Europe by Dr. 
Pliny Earle in 1839, and, later, by Dr. Kay; the Association 
of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the 
Insane, suggested by Dr. Francis T. Stribling, superintend- 
ent of the Western Lunatic Asylum of Virginia, at Stan- 
ton ; and " The American Journal of Insanity," started in July, 
1844, by Dr. Amariah Brigham, afterwards edited by Dr. John 
P. Gray and his associates of the asylum at Utica, N.Y. ; 
with many other agencies conducted by our most enlight- 
ened philanthropists, — have contributed largely toward the 
improvement of institutions and means for the accomplish- 
ment of these most beneficent ends. 

The cause conducted so largely by private benefactors, 
and then chiefly by the several States, has at length become 
national. Congress, by the wise appropriations of sums at 
different times for grounds and buildings, amounting in the 
aggregate to $473,040, makes the people of the United 
States as such the benefactors of their most unfortunate 
brethren. " The Government Hospital for the Insane was 



DEVELOPMENT OF MANHOOD AND HUMANITY. 489 

specially intended for the insane of the army, the navy, the 
revenue-cutter service, and the indigent of the District of 
Columbia. It is situated on the eastern shore of the Poto- 
mac River, within the limits of the District of Columbia, and 
about two miles south of the Capitol in Washington. The 
principal building, constructed of brick, is seven hundred 
and twenty feet in length. Its architectural plan and inter- 
nal arrangements are among the best which have resulted 
from the experience and the studies of many able men em- 
ployed in this speciality. A farm of a hundred and ninety- 
five acres belons^s to the establishment." Dr. Charles H. 
Nichols, its first superintendent, deserves great credit for the 
perfection of the building commenced under his direction in 
May, 1853, and completed in 1862. Its number of patients, 
beginning in 1855 with sixty-three, had increased, up to 
1861, to a hundred and eighty. 

According to the eighth census, the insane of the United 
States and Territories numbered 23,999. In 1859, 4,140 
were admitted to thirty hospitals ; and 1,728, or 41.7 per cent, 
were discharged as cured. Forty per cent may be regarded 
as the average of cures from all classes of patients considered 
as a whole; whereas, of cures placed under proper treatment 
within the first year, from sixty to seventy out of every 
hundred recover. 

This is wonderful : it is the clearest possible demonstration 
of the advance in humanity which constitutes one of the chief 
glories of the nineteenth century. Instead of thinking of 
our suffering brethren as shut up in dark dungeons, chained 
to stone floors, looking out through iron grates, and raving 
in anguish at evils which they can in no way comprehend, 
we may now look at them in splendid buildings, with prudent 
access to large airy halls and beautiful grounds, their con- 
finement and ills relieved by medical and moral treatment 
from skilful men and gentle nurses, with all the sanitary 
blessings of wholesome air, wholesome food and beverage, 

62 



490 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

beautiful and fragrant flowers, and inspiring landscapes. 
Who can estimate the value of such a change ? 



ASYLUMS FOR IDIOTS AND INEBRIATES. 

Another class of human beings calling for pity are idiots ; 
of whom there were in our States and Territories, in 1860, 
18,865, or one in every 1,666 of our population. 

The idea of doing any thing for the benefit of these mind- 
less ones is wholly modern and Christian ; and now we see, 
through the exhaustless skill and patience of humane sci- 
entific men and kind women, these unfortunates also slowl}^ 
returning to consciousness and perception, and gradually 
risinsc to the exercise of reason, and even usefulness. 

Inebriates, the most criminal and yet pitiable of all de- 
mented people, are also at length finding an asylum from 
the reach of their relentless murderers, the dealers in intoxi- 
cating liquors ; and hope dawns upon minds and families 
over which has heretofore brooded only the darkest, deepest 
despair. At Binghamton, N.Y., and San Francisco, Cal., 
are the two parent homes for the inebriate, for the Atlantic 
and Pacific slopes ; to be followed, let us trust, by others, 
until this also shall take its place among the great Christian 
movements of this noble country. 



CHAPTER IX. 
DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 

" Let us consider, that, for the sins of a people, God may suffer the best government to 
be corrupted or entirely dissolved ; and that nothing but a general reformation can give 
good ground to hope that the public happiness will be restored by the recovery of tha 
strength and perfection of the State ; and that Divine Providence will interpose to fill 
every department with wise and good men." — Pkesident Langdon. 

If, in any land beneath the sun, human nature might be 
expected to exhibit natural freedom from sin, and from 
infancy grow up to angelic manhood, it surely ought to be 
here. It would be difficult to mention one condition of 
natural perfection outside of the moral character of man, as 
man, which God has omitted in the preparation of this coun- 
try. We have found, moreover, an evident purpose to bring 
extraordinary moral power to bear upon the judgments, 
feelings, and purposes of the race in this Republic, with the 
view of accomplishing the most for human nature that can 
be done by means divine and human. But what are the 
facts? Evidently, there is no paradise here. We have 
utterly failed to demonstrate the natural purity of souls. 
We can boast of no national perfection growing up under 
the natural lavv^s of development. Indeed, we have not even 
a state or country or city or neighborhood where depravity 
does not show itself, rising up so directly out of the natural 
moral condition as to suggest strongly that it must be 
hereditary. Every family finds rebellion against the right 
in its nursery, and even in the cradle. The neglect of even 
the sterner forms of discipline will soon reveal its absolute 
necessity ; and all assumptions of the righteous tendency 

491 



492 THE GREAT EEPUELIC. 

of childhood are painfully corrected by the production, as 
well as the influence, of pernicious example. Penal laws 
must go into every statute-book. The police, the seats of 
justice, the penitentiaries, the houses of correction, must be 
everywhere. The States of this Union are no exception to 
the moral delinquencies of peoples and governments ; and 
historical fidelity requires the chapter I am about to write. 

INTEMPERANCE. 

Love of strons: drink is at least as natural to Americans 
as to any people ; and it is cultivated to a depth and extent 
of vice which can gather no comfort from comparison with 
other countries. 

Official reports for 1860 show that we were then employ- 
ing 1,138 establishments in the manufacture of spirituous 
liquors, producing 80,453,089 gallons of whiskey, high wines, 
and alcohol, 3,397 gallons of brandy, gin, &c., and 4,152,480 
gallons of New-England rum ; being a total of 88,002,988 
gallons of strong liquors to circulate chiefly among our own 
people, and be used as a beverage just so far as a vicious 
appetite and depraved public sentiment, urged on by a vile 
class interest, can secure this result. 

To this must be added 970 establishments for the man- 
ufacture of beer, yielding 3,239,545 barrels annually, to 
stupefy and poison our citizens. The estimated value of 
these pernicious liquors was $42,255,311 ; and, making all 
proper allowance for those portions used for mechanical and 
medicinal purposes, we have here one intimation as to the 
cost of this ruinous indulgence. It is, however, only an in- 
timation ; for these liquors, before they get to the people, 
are multiplied by incredible dilutions. Their cost is increased 
by enormous profits ; and the whole price which supports 
manufacturers, jobbers, and retail dealers and their fami- 
lies, — many of them in splendid attire, furniture, and equi- 
page, — comes from consumers, who are thus wickedly im- 



DEVELOPMENT OF NATUKAL DEPRAVITY. 493 

poverished; and multitudes of helpless women and children 
are reduced to the extreme of wretchedness, and perhaps 
of crime. To this expense must be added, for these poor 
people to pay, the cost of clerk-hire and agencies, bar-keep- 
ers and rents, until the frightful aggregate rises above the 
reach of accurate estimate. Then taxes on the grand list 
must be added to the burdens of the people to support the 
poor-houses, penitentiaries, and hospitals required to sustain 
this accursed traffic. But the deep depravity, the wreck of 
virtue, and the untold horrors, which must be traced directly 
to this crime, can by no means be estimated in this world ; 
and it is the disgrace of our country, that, in so many of our 
States, the guilty traffic is sustained by law. 

With less than half our present population, it was estimated 
that we sent into the realms of the dead thirty thousand 
drunkards a year, and that " one-fourth of the families of 
the United States were sufferers " from this vicious habit. 

Some of our great men, like Dr. Benjamin Rush, sought to 
rouse the people to their danger. The strong ground of the 
Methodist-Episcopal Church, in her discipline and administra- 
tion against the use of intoxicating drinks, saved multitudes 
from ruin, and helped mightily to create the public sentiment 
out of which temperance societies arose, — a movement which 
began in Moreau, Saratoga County, N.Y., in 1808, at the sug- 
gestion of Dr. B. J. Clark, and which has swept over a large 
part of the civilized world. If we must confess that the vice 
of dram-drinking did, at the close of the last century and 
the beginning of the present, go far toward fixing upon 
us the disgrace of being a nation of drunkards, it may be 
accepted as some relief that this great reform arose under 
the guidance of American philanthropists. Their heroic 
struggles, under the old pledge, to abstain from the use of 
spirituous liquors ; and the pledge of total abstinence from 
all that can intoxicate, dating from August, 1836; the or- 
ganization of the Washingtonians in 1840, with all their 
successes and Hiilures, — indicate the depth of their con- 



494 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

victions that a destructive vice was preying upon the public 
morals and health. Sons of Temperance, Rechabites, Cadets 
of Temperance, Good Templars, Dashaways, and other bene- 
ficial societies, sought in other ways to exterminate the evil. 

The boldest measure of a virtuous and Christian people to 
protect themselves from this public wrong dates from Maine 
in 1851. Her legislature came forward with a law that pro- 
hibited, under severe penalties, the sale of this pernicious 
beverage ; and prohibitory laws were adopted by several 
States. Around this question of the right and efficiency of 
absolute prohibition the battle has raged for many years, 
saving vast multitudes, and even whole towns, for the time 
being, from the dreadful scourge, and rousing all the energy 
of wicked men in defence of their traffic, with the fell purpose 
of saving their unrighteous and enormous profits from the 
interdict of law. In the mean time, the constitutional right 
of the suffering people to protect themselves by law from 
this baleful scourge has been established by the written 
opinions of the ablest jurists of our land, and, finally, by 
appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. 

With the record of the American Temperance Union and 
its subordinate and cognate organizations on the pages of 
history ; with such names on the roll of philanthropy as 
Dr. Beecher, Marsh, Neal Dow, and Gough ; and with the 
grand reforms actually accomplished in America, in England, 
and on the Continent, — we have some relief from the odium 
which otherwise adheres to our national honor. But the 
battle is by no means ended. The churches, the schools, the 
lovers of the race in our midst, and the virtuous press, are 
rousing to the conflict with a new vigor ; while all the vices 
of the land are combined in the resistance. This war will 
now rise to grander proportions than ever before ; and Chris- 
tian REGENERATION, TOTAL ABSTINENCE, AND ABSOLUTE PROHIBITION, 

will be the rallying-cry of the good and the brave on the 
side of the right. The struggle will be long and varied in 
results ; but it can never end until our country is saved. 



DEVELOPMENT OP NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 495 

LICENTIOUSNESS. 

Whatever may be the desire prompted by self-respect, we 
cannqt be faithful to the history of our nation without ac- 
knowledging that the crimes of lust are alarmingly preva- 
lent in the United States. We have no desire to avail our- 
selves of statistics to show the extent of prostitution in our 
great cities, nor would it be any relief to demonstrate the 
fearful and even deeper degradation of France or England. 
It is sufficient to know that the extent in the United States 
of this common ruin furnishes sad evidence that depravity 
has its home in the passions, in the very fountains of domes- 
tic and social life. We cannot, therefore, feel that we have 
fathomed our private and social corruptions when we have 
searched with painful thoroughness the abodes of public and 
shameless vice, or the secret retreats of blushing crime in 
houses of assio-nation. The marred visao-e, the tremblino- 
limbs, the excitable nerves, the prescriptions of physicians, 
and the disruption of domestic ties, tell how rapidly splendid 
hypocrisy is leading its victims to the doom of the shame- 
less debauchee. 

To a kindred origin we must ascribe much of the levity 
witli which, in large circles, the marriage-contract is regarded. 
The number of divorces, and the corrupt adjustment of law 
to the convenience of this form of social vice, are shameful 
evidences of the want of public virtue. We must, moreover, 
recognize " the serpent in the dove's nest," and come to the 
understanding, that licentious abuse of marital rights, lead- 
ins; to the crimes of abortion and infinticide, — crimes more 
befittinu^ the savao-e or barbarous state than a land of Chris- 
tian civilization, — are alarmingly frequent, threatening the 
most sacred obligations and highest hopes of our country. 
No man can write fiithfal history, and ignore these humili- 
ating, facts. We see the perils with which this tide of vice 
and woes threatens our beloved land, and unite with those 
who lift up the voice of warning. Let the mothers and 



496 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

daughters of America know their clanger. Let the wisdom 
of domestic education, and a more refined conscience, assert 
their rights in our imperilled homes. Let the pulpit and 
the press be honest, searching, and prudent in endeavoring to 
correct the popular judgment. Indeed, philanthropists and 
reformers of every grade must go to the bottom of these 
vices and dangers, and take the remedies which the gospel 
affords. These alone are radical and of prevalent power. 

SOCIALISM AND SPIRITISM. 

America cannot claim any distinction in socialistic folly 
equal to that given to France by St. Simon and Charles 
Fourier, and to England by Robert Owen. But we must 
confess to the presence of this leaven of iniquity in our 
midst. Starting from the extremes of religious fanaticism 
on the one hand, and infidelity on the other, a few minds in 
America reached similar results, in the destruction, for them- 
selves and their followers, of all the cardinal virtues. These 
men, of course, " drew away disciples after them," and led 
them out to experiment the dreams of diseased imaginations. 
One class of fanatics seized uj)on the idea of religious per- 
fection, and became delirious with the excitements of animal 
fervor, which, to their conceptions, elevated them far above 
ordinary Christians, and freed them entirely from sin; then 
from the possibility of sin ; then exalted them to the sphere 
of new revelations, which gave to their own imaginings the 
authority of the divine mind; and finally made them su- 
perior to law and human control, sanctifying their vilest 
passions, and rendering supremely right and meritorious in 
them all the vices which degrade and destroy society. Of 
course, these fanatical spirits had no use for the Bible : the 
vagaries of their own fevered brains were of higher authority. 
They could not well endure even the outward restraints of 
common decency ; and the}- only wanted leaders of sufficient 
shrewdness to render this monomania available in schemes 



DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 497 

of socialism which would reduce depravity to a system, and 
surround it with an air of comfort and outward elegance to 
make it seem a new order of civilization. Of course, multi- 
tudes of these deluded people would become too crazy to be 
gathered into a new community : some would wander from 
home, and become ranging mendicants, exciting ridicule and 
pity ; others would be humanelj^ arrested, and shut up in the 
mad-house ; others would die from exhaustion or premature 
disease, or by their own hands, leaving but a comparatively 
small number to become the obedient subjects of some im- 
perial fanatic, who can with perfect ease extort money, 
purchase lands, build houses, and embower himself amid the 
groves and flowers and luxuries of an Eastern harem. He 
has only to isolate himself and his degraded people sufficient- 
ly from the scrutiny of society to be beyond the reach of 
popular indignation and civil law, and expose enough of the 
outward beauties gathered around him by unlimited power 
to excite stupid wonder and admiration, and grant to his 
deluded proselytes sufficient license to make them contented 
with a paradise of sin ; and, while he can master disease and 
avoid death, he can claim greatness and success. 

It is not our purpose to dignify the examples of temporary 
triumph over the weakness of human nature by naming their 
heroes, or w^riting a directory to any establishment surviving 
the wrecks of those which have gone before. Socialism 
is mentioned, however, that its vices may be identified and 
avoided, and that we may not be accused of shrinking from 
due acknowledgment of the wrongs and dangers w-hich 
spring up amid our free institutions. 

To the mmd of the great infidel experimenter, Robert 
Owen, it seemed naturally suggested that the fertile lands 
and democratic freedom of America would furnish a fair 
field in which to demonstrate his theory of "A New State of 
Society," "The Formation of Human Character," "The Ration- 
al System " of life, and " The New Moral World." Over- 
whelmed by the rising self-respect and indignation of the 

63 



498 THE GREAT REPUBLIC, 

English people, he emigrated to America. Thirty thou- 
sand acres of land, and residences for two thousand people, 
on the Wabash River, in the very heart of the Great West, 
would do for the beginning of New Harmony in Indiana. 
Here he would place his fulcrum for the overthrow of Chris- 
tianity, and the destruction of all governments that interfered 
with the self-development of the natural man, and imposed 
restraints upon natural affinities of the human race. But 
his logical sequences refused to follow. Less than four 
years sufficed to show this New Harmony a very Bed- 
lam of discord, to dash all his mad schemes to atoms, and 
send him back to England to repeat his experiments and 
failures at Orbiston in Lanarkshire, at Tytherly in Hamp- 
shire, and in the city of London. Livited to Mexico by the 
government, he made another grand effort and grand failure 
in the New World ; and there this brilliant socialistic lumi- 
nary burst and went out before the eyes of men. 

These two forms of gregarious vices are enough to show 
that they may arise alike under a monarchy or a republic, 
and that steady Christian illumination will ultimately dissi- 
pate their darkness. 

A form of fanaticism, differing in no essential practical 
principle or result from those we have described, and begin- 
ning here with " spirit-rappings," has not yet fully spent its 
force. To Americans it hardly needs description or exposure. 
It is enousrh to mark it as allied to ancient forms of necro- 
mancy, demoniacal possessions, and sleight of hand, by which 
the unwary may be seduced for a time into the belief that 
unexplained connections between matter and mind, the 
manipulations of cunning hands, and the low, ungrammatical, 
senseless ravings of crazed brains, constitute a new system 
of revelation from the spirit-world, that must supersede the 
teachinscs of the Bible, and overthrow all established sys- 
tems of religion, philosophy, and government. In historical 
reality, however, they only show, like all kindred forms of 
fanaticism, power to use ranting declamation, personal in- 



DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 499 

fluence, the press and the passions, to destroy all sense of 
religion and responsibihty from the soul, break up the 
holiest family ties, and let loose upon society a set of wan- 
dering vagrants, whose very breath is moral pestilence, and 
whose haunts are the scenes of frenzied delirium and " the 
hot-beds of vice." 

It is of no consequence to us as a nation, but simple mat- 
ter of historic justice, to say, that, if our Republic was the 
scene of the latest outbreak of this old and foul superstition, 
our itinerant deceivers have found their largest number of 
votaries, and held their most profitable seances, under 
monarchical governments ; which is sufficient to rebuke the 
attempts of some of their intelligent speakers and writers to 
charge the origin and support of fanatical vagaries upon 
republican institutions, and lead us to mourn a common 
exposure and a common disgrace. 

MORMONISM 

is another form of human folly and vice, which has helped 
to give " bad eminence " to our country. There is really 
nothing new in this movement of the fanatical spirit. Long 
before the days of Joseph Smith and his transparent fraud of 
" the plates," and the supernatural translations of their records, 
there had been multitudes of men who gave themselves 
out for inspired prophets, who assumed to command the 
obedience of deluded men and women, who made their own 
blasphemous ravings superior to the revelation of God, and 
took advantage of religious longings for the vilest purposes. 
Alas for the weakness of poor human nature ! It is pre- 
pared by Satan to be the victim of cunning fraud and 
degrading passions. In whatever country depravity may 
find its centres for the time being, it furnishes only occa- 
sion for common mortification and sorrow. 

But the organized strength and political importance of 
this great fraud entitle it to a more extended notice. Joseph 



500 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

Smith, the founder of Mormonism, " was born at Sharon, 
Windsor County, Vt, Dec. 23, 1805; and killed at Carthage, 
111., June 27, 1844. At the age of ten, he moved with his 
parents to Palmyra, Wayne County, N.Y." He grew up idle, 
dissolute, and ignorant. "In 1833, upwards of sixty of the 
most respectable citizens of Wayne County testified that the 
Smith family were of immoral, false, and fraudulent charac- 
ter, and that Joseph was the worst of them." His pretended 
discovery of the plates in the earth " in a hill near Manches- 
ter, Ontario County," from which the Book of Mormon was 
translated, was acknowledged by himself to be false. The 
three witnesses whom he had induced to perjure themselves 
to certify to the appearance of the Angel Moroni, and the de- 
livery of the miraculous book, afterward quarrelled with him, 
and denounced him as an impostor. Ample internal evidence 
condemns the Book of Mormon as a poorly-concealed and 
low fiction. It was written as an historical novel by Solomon 
Spalding, a graduate of Dartmouth College ; and copied by 
Sidney Rigdon, a man employed in a printing-office in Pitts- 
burg, where Spalding left it for examination. The testimony 
of those who had seen and heard it read in part or in whole, 
and especially that of Spalding's wnfe after his death, is con- 
clusive upon this point. The manuscript was returned to her 
and produced after the Book of Mormon was published. She 
says, " I am sure that nothing would grieve my husband 
more, were he living, than the use which has been made of 
his work." The air of antiquity which was thrown about the 
composition doubtless suggested the idea of converting it 
to the purposes of delusion. Thus, an historical romance, 
with the addition of a few pious expressions and extracts 
from the Sacred Scriptures, has been construed into a new 
Bible, and palmed off upon a company of poor deluded fa- 
natics as divine. 

From this book. Smith and his family began to preach 
a new religion. Foolish, idle, and easily-deluded people 
gathered about him; and at Manchester, N.Y., April 6, 1830, 



DEVELOrMENT OF NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 501 

" the Church of the Latter-day Saints " was formed. Reve- 
lations soon began to be announced, pretended miracles 
were asserted, and the fatal delusion began to spread. 

Under the direction of their leader, this rabble of vile 
enthusiasts settled in Kirtland, 0. ; where their frauds upon 
neighboring communities so excited the indignation of the 
people, that they drove them from their midst as an insup- 
portable nuisance. They fled to Missouri, where many out- 
rages were committed. They were driven from Jackson 
County and from Clay County, and at length located at 
Far West. Further exposures of their iniquitous and trea- 
sonable plans were made, under oath, by Thomas B. March, 
president of "the twelve apostles," and Orson Hyde, another 
of their apostles. Their organized band of avenging Danites, 
and their bold threats of a war of extermination against their 
opposers, brought them into violent collision with the people 
of Missouri. The governor called out the militia. Smith 
and Eigdon were arrested and imprisoned under charge of 
" treason, murder, and felony ; " but Smith escaped from jail, 
and Rigdon was released by writ of habeas corpus. The 
Mormons agreed to leave the State, and, to the number of 
thousands, moved on to Commerce, 111. ; and Smith, by pre- 
tended revelation, ordered the people to build there the city 
of Nauvoo. Land had been presented to him by Dr. Isaac 
Gallard; and the prophet, by the sale of lots, realized a 
fortune estimated at over a million of dollars. 

Indulged by a vicious and extraordinary charter granted 
by the Legislature of Illinois, Smith was now a man of im- 
portance. He was mayor of Nauvoo, first president of the 
Church, and commander-in-chief of the Nauvoo Legion, with 
the rank of lieutenant-general. A hotel was erected in which 
Smith and his family should have place " from generation 
to feneration for ever and ever." '•' A revelation " now pro- 
nounced Smith " seer, translator, prophet, apostle of Jesus 
Christ, and elder of the Church ; " and profanely said, " The 
church shall give heed to all his words and commandments 



502 THE GREAT EEPUI^LIC. 

which he shall give unto you; for his word shall ye receive 
as if from my own mouth, in all patience and faith." * 

Thus did this vile, blasphemous deceiver rise to the posi- 
tion of absolute power ; and under its shield, and with pre- 
tended revelations, he commenced, more boldly than before, 
to gather about him deluded women, and give authority to 
the licentious doctrine of polygamy. His criminal practices 
became unendurable to many of his own followers. They 
denounced and prosecuted him, and, by the sworn testimony 
of insulted virtuous women, fixed upon him and his leading 
supporters the crimes which destroy society, and bring upon 
guilty offenders the wrath of God. The heads of the 
church, fearing the violence of the storm which was gather- 
ing, published a denial of the doctrines of polygamy ; but no 
such mendacity could blind the eyes of personal witnesses of 
their persistent efforts to give to general prostitution the pro- 
tection of municipal law in the name of religion. 

This arch-criminal and his leading disciples refused to obey 
the law, until they were persuaded that it was useless, and 
submitted to be imprisoned. One form of illegal violence 
had given pretext for another : the mob assaulted the jail ; 
and the two Smiths, Joseph and Hiram, were shot dead. 

Brigham Young, an uncultivated but shrewd and powerful 
man, born at Whitingham, Vt., June 1, 1801, and who had 
joined the Mormons at Kirtland in 1832, soon appeared with 
sufficient native force to put down all rivals, and assume the 
supreme power, which, at the moment of death, had fallen 
from the arch-deceiver Smith. Henceforward this one dar- 
ing, unscrupulous mind becomes the organizer of this grand 
system of concentrated abominations. 

Brigham Young was too shrewd to attempt the develop- 
ment of this scheme of iniquity in the midst of civilization, 
and very easily invented the " revelations," which led the 
reckless outlaws beyond the Rocky Mountains, on to the 
great American plateau stretching westward to the Sierra 

* See Appletou's American Cyclopaedia, article "Mormons." 



DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL DEPEAVITY. 503 

Nevadas. This region of vast solitudes, but capable of suc- 
cessful cultivation, and of sustaining a very large populatiou, 
was a fitting place for the planting of this now formidable 
colony of corruption. Young reached the region of the 
Great Salt Lake, July 24, 1847 ; and the great body of the 
Mormons, in the fall of 1848. Here they have built a city 
and a vast temple. From this point they have sent out 
their missionaries to different parts of the world, and espe- 
cially to Great Britain, whence they have brought large 
numbers of men and very much larger numbers of women 
to be the victims of their gross deceptions and base passions. 
Here they have openly avowed the system of polygamy, and 
glory in the number and comeliness of the abused and sacri- 
ficed females who crowd their harems. Here they show a 
pretended obedience to civil rulers, but organize treason, and, 
for the present, defy the Government. From this point they 
extend their towns and labors, cultivating new fields, and 
consorting at pleasure with hostile Indians in their savage 
assaults upon helpless emigrants. Well may the scathing 
denunciations of our Saviour to the scribes and Pharisees 
be addressed to them : " Woe unto you, hypocrites ! for ye 
compass sea and land to make one proselyte ; and, when he 
is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than 
yourselves." 

It is unnecessary to trace this great iniquity farther. It 
is sufficient to say that it must go on until it is fully devel- 
oped and has spent its force. Government has no right 
forcibly to prevent religious delusion as such; but it has 
full power to suppress outlawry, prevent conspiracy against 
its own sovereignty, and protect its citizens in their rights 
among the vagrants who brand them as " Gentiles," and per- 
secute them for the exercise of the purest forms of Christian 
worship. How long this desired discipline may be delayed, 
we may not know ; but mutual jealousies and angry recrim- 
inations amongst themselves, the rising self-respect of the 
Government, and the hardly restrained indignation of the 



504 . THE GEE AT REPUBLIC. 

American people, indicate that the time for retribution, or 
submission to the laws of the land, draws nigh. . 

In the mean time, there is the least possible apology for 
charging this monstrous, morbid growth upon true repub- 
licanism, as it has for a long time depended mainly for main- 
taining and increasing its population upon its annual throngs 
of proselytes from the subjects of monarchies in England or 
on the continent of Europe. It is useless to attempt a refer- 
ence of this or any other form of j^nvate or social vice to 
any method of civil government. It is simply and only a 
development of natural depravity. God's answer to this 
shameless efll'ontery, as to the great Mohammedan apostasy, 
is quietly coming to the ears of men, and will soon be audi- 
ble in the solemn announcements of retributive justice. 

CORRUPTION IN RELIGION AND POLITICS. 

It cannot be claimed that in America more than else- 
where the sacred name of religion has never been misap- 
plied, nor that the Church has been in all cases preserved 
from dangerous error. Men bring to the consideration of 
religious as well as other questions darkened intellects and 
depraved hearts. A common tendency to substitute per- 
verted human reason for divine omniscience and revelation 
in matters of faith appears in rationalistic infidelity alike in 
Germany, England, and America. No matter where or in 
what form it appears, this sceptical spirit seeks the satisfac- 
tion of felt religious want without the new birth and a life 
of self-denial. The churches of the United States in com 
mon with Christendom have felt the paralyzing effects of 
unbelief and of the spirit of a naturalistic philosophy, 
which alike deny to the thirsty soul the pure waters of life, 
and fail to realize in time the true hope of immortality. Just 
in proportion as this pride of intellect has predominated over 
simple faith in the Bible and in the Christ of history, religion 
has revealed weakness instead of vitality and power. 



DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 505 

It must, rnoreover, be stated that the great apostasy from 
Rome has become numerically strong in America. An accu- 
rate estimate of this pervading power requires a glance at 
its general organization. 

According to " The Pontifical Annual for 186G/' the 
Catholic census for the world includes 57 cardinals (6 of 
whom are bishops), 43 priests, and 8 deacons. Of the 57, 
29 reside at Rome, the others abroad. There were at that 
date 11 "vacant hats." There w^ere, moreover, 12 patriarch- 
al sees, 154 archiepiscopal, and G92 episcopal. '• To these 
must be added 226 sees in partihus infidellum., — 30 arch- 
bishoprics, and 196 bishoprics. Of the patriarchs, 5 belong 
to the Eastern, and 7 to the Latin churches ; of the arch- 
bishops, 24 to the former, and 134 to the latter; and of the 
bishops, 46 are Eastern, and 646 Latin. In the 5 parts of 
the world are 96 sees, which hold their authority directly 
from Rome. The number of apostolic vicars is 101 ; of 
delegations, 5 ; of prefectures, 21 ; of abbeys and prelate- 
ships of no diocese, 14. Pius IX. has raised 12 cathedrals 
to the rank of metropolitan churches ; has erected 4 arch- 
bishoprics and 96 bishopiics ; and has created 15 vicarates, 
1 delegation, and 6 prefectures." 

According to the latest statistical statements, there are in 
the Roman-Catholic Church 310,000 monks and nuns. The 
male orders have the following membership : Franciscans, 
50,000; School Brethren, 16,000 ; Jesuits, 8,000 ; Congrega- 
tions for nursing the sick, 6,000 ; Benedictines, 5,000 ; Do- 
minicans, 4,000 ; Carmelites, 4,000 ; Trappists, 4,000 ; Laza- 
rists, 2,000 ; Piarists, 2,000 ; Redemptionists, 2,000, &c. The 
female orders count about 190,000 members, of which 20,000 
nuns are in America. 

A orlance at these fiii-ures will show the sources of our 
Catholic population, and the organized power which lies be- 
hind the propagandism which blindly seeks to convert this 
Republic to a vast province of ecclesiastical Rome. The 
annual emigration from Europe includes numbers of Ro- 

64 



506 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

manists quite sufficient to explain the ratio of Catholic 
increase in America. 

Adopting the rough estimate of 2,000 Roman Catholics to 
one priest, there were supposed to be 4,400,000 in the United 
States in 18G0. " In 1808, there was 1 Catholic to 68 
Protestants; in 1830, 1 to 29 ; in 1840, 1 to 18; in 1850, 
1 to 11 ; in 18G0, 1 to 7. That is, between 1840 and 1860, 
the increase was 125 upon each 100, v/hile the nation only 
increased by 36 to 100." In 1861, they reckoned in the 
United States 7 provinces, 48 dioceses, 3 vicarates, 45 bish- 
ops, 2,317 priests, 2,517 churches, 1,278 stations and chapels, 
49 ecclesiastical institutions, and a population of between 
4,000,000 and 5,000,000. 

To understand the Romanism of to-day, and accurately 
measure the dangers with which it threatens our free Repub- 
lic, the following facts must be carefully studied : — 

First, published statistics of the Roman Catholics in this 
country must be considered as quite unreliable. They in- 
clude large masses of immigrants, who here utterly ignore 
practical Christianity. They are simply baptized Catholics, 
educated in that faith, but have no other claims to Christian 
character. In regard to the great public vices, they can in no 
way be distinguished from the mass of unregenerate wicked 
men. If the right of Romanists to membership were to 
depend, like other professed Christians, upon regular and 
virtuous, not to say holy, lives, instead of baptism, auricular 
confession, and absolution ; if thorough discipline were to re- 
nounce those who are a scandal to the name of Christian, — 
their numbers would be in no way formidable here or else- 
where. If all baptized Protestants were to be reckoned as 
members of their respective churches, without regard to 
their voluntary acceptance of church relations, and in the 
absence of Christian discipline, our numbers would be 
swelled to such proportions as to quiet the fears of rela- 
tive increase in numbers and power. 

Let us next turn to the claim set up by the Romish 



DEVELOPMENT OF NATUEAL DEPRAVITY. 507 

Church with respect to jurisdiction and prerogative, and 
observe its relation to modern civilization. The pope's 
encyclical letter, addressed, Dec. 8, 1864, to all Catholic bish- 
ops, must be good authority. He informs the public, that, 
upon coming to the chair of St. Peter, he " beheld a horrible 
tempest stirred up by so many erroneous opinions, and the 
dreadful and never-enough-to-be-lamented mischiefs which 
redound to Christian people from such errors ; " and as his 
predecessors had exerted their apostolic authority against 
all '• heresies," so he had " condemned the prominent most 
grievous errors of the age." But he found it necessary to 
come forward again with apostolic authority to arrest espe- 
cially the alarming doctrine of freedom in the exercise of 
religion. From totally false notions of social government, 
he says, men "fear not to uphold that erroneous opinion 
most pernicious to the Catholic Church and to the salvation 
of souls, which was called by our predecessor, Gregory XYL, 
the insanity [deliria mentum), — namely, that liberty of con- 
science and of worship is the right of every man ; and that 
the right ought, in every well-governed State, to be pro- 
claimed and asserted by the law ; and that the citizens pos- 
sess the right of being unrestrained in the exercise of every 
kind of liberty, by any law, ecclesiastical or civil, so that they 
are authorized to publish and put forward openly all their 
ideas whatsoever, either by speaking, in print, or in any 
other method.' " This " liberty of conscience and of worship " 
is denounced as " the liberty of perdition," and, in the lan- 
guage of St. Leo, as a " most mischievous vanity." It is 
affirmed, moreover, on the authority of " our most wise and 
courageous predecessor, St. Felix, that it is certain that it 
is advantageous for sovereigns, when the cause of God is in 
question, to submit their royal will according to his ordi- 
nance to the priests of Jesus Christ, and not to prefer it 
before them." Among the things condemned and to be utter- 
ly put down by bishops and all the faithful is the propo- 
sition, that " Protestantism is nothing more than another 



508 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

form of the sanctioned Christian reh'gion, in which it is 
possible to be equally pleasing to God as in the Catholic 
Church." Biblical societies are mentioned among; the 
"pests" which "are frequently rebuked in the severest 
terms " in the encyclicals and allocutions. Nothing is 
more heterodox than to affirm that " kings and princes are 
not only exempt from the jurisdiction of the Church, but are 
superior to the Church in litigated questions of jurisdiction; 
and that the Church ought to be separated from the State, 
and the State from the Church." 

It is thus seen that every principle that is held dear to 
America is denounced by the very highest Romish authority. 
It is, moreover, held by the Catholic Church to be a great 
grievance, that in some of the States, " in the matter of the 
tenure of ecclesiastical property, she conforms to the general 
laws providing for this object. These laws, however, are 
based on principles w^hich she cannot accept without depart- 
ing from her practice from the beginning, as soon as she was 
permitted to enjoy liberty of worship. They are the ex- 
pression of a distrust of ecclesiastical power as such, and are 
the fruit of the misrepresentations which have been made of 
the action of the Church in past ages. As well might the 
civil power prescribe to her the doctrines she is to teach, 
and the worship with which she is to honor God, as to im- 
pose on her a system of holding her temporalities which is 
alien to her principles, and which is borrowed from those 
who have rejected her authority." 

We must not, therefore, expect our Roman-Catholic citizens 
to be satisfied with the laws of public trusts which are 
framed for all the churches indiscriminately, and the Ameri- 
can people as a w^hole. Their system cannot bend to us : our 
legislation must, therefore, accommodate itself to them. 

There is much in all this which seems sufficiently menacing 
to the liberties of the world, and of our Republic in particu- 
lar. But it is worth while to note that these attempts at 
ecclesiastical domination are not successful in Europe. The 



DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 509 

reception of the encyclical on the part of the political press 
and legislatures in Catholic countries was decidedly unfa- 
vorable. The leading Catholic minds of France, Austria, 
Spain, Portugal, and Italy, gave unmistakable evidence of 
alarm at so daring an attempt to revive and give favor to 
the Romish doctrines of the dark ages ; and the demand for 
free toleration is much more urgent in Catholic Europe on 
account of these absurd pretensions. 

In the mean time, the temporal power of the pope, so per- 
sistently affirmed from highest Romish authority to be abso- 
lutely indispensable to the integrity of the Catholic Church, is 
really destroyed. Certainly not the power of the Emperor of 
France to maintain the pope's authority over the little rem- 
nant of the former magnificent patrimony of St. Peter, but 
the power of the pope to maintain temporal sovereignty 
against the uprising freedom of his own subjects, is entirely 
gone. Much less could this claim, absurdly based upon the 
necessities of reliiaon, be maintained for a sing-le week 
against the free Catholics of the former Papal States. In 
other words, the assertions of this lordly authority are as 
haughty and imperious as in the days of Leo X. ; but they 
inspire no such terror, and produce general contempt instead 
of alarm. True, the essential Roman-Catholic Church has 
not changed : but the world has changed ; her people have 
changed. In Italy, the very seat of her power, the sentence 
of excommunication is alike disregarded by prince and court, 
bishop and priest; and it may be justly said that there is not 
a sovereign or nation in the world for whom the thunders 
of the Vatican have any terrors. This is simple history ; and 
it is certain that the eyes of the most enlightened Catholic 
countries are turned away from the church of repression 
toward Christian civilization and progress. 

It may seem to us that the rapid gains of Romanism in 
the United States indicate a purpose to transfer the seat of 
priestly domination to America; and this may be true. But 
the purpose will fail. Whether it be more dangerous to 



510 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

have a larger number of Catholics here, and a smaller num- 
ber in Ireland and on the Continent, we might be unable to 
say ; but it is so evidently a part of God's plan for bringing 
the darkness to the light, that it is no irreverence to say, he 
evidently does not fear it. The battle is coming on ; but we 
are certain that the Bible will conquer. 

Nearly allied to the great apostasy of which we have 
written is corruption in politics. The freedom granted to 
the citizen by the government of the people may be greatly 
abused. Demagogues may use it for selfish ends ; party 
spirit may rise above national cliiims ; bad men may aspire 
to office, and succeed ; bribery and misrepresentation may 
determine an election, pass laws, and corrupt the seats of 
justice. All this has occurred here, and it is no relief to us 
to show that it is so everywhere ; that bribery and corrup- 
tion in elections are reduced to a system in England, and so 
utterly shameless as to allow of no attempt to deny them 
or obviate their damaging power. If it be true in theory 
that all this is easier and more likely to occur in a republic 
than under a constitutional monarchy, it is not true in fact. 
These are vices which do not inhere in systems of govern- 
ment. They are back of all governments. They arise from 
a common depravity, indicate a common danger, and re- 
quire a common remedy. The race is coming to feel the 
imperative demand for a divine regeneration of society, the 
grand model of which is found in every true Christian in 
whose heart, purposes, motives, and acts, old things have 
passed away, and all things become new. 

Until this grand consummation is reached in the common 
humanity of our nation, we must battle with political dis- 
honesty. We shall find the very bulwarks of civil liberty 
clandestinely or fearlessly assailed. Politicians will put for- 
ward candidates who are deemed " available," without due 
regard to virtue or capability ; parties and individuals will 
give and receive bribes for votes ; the most salutary laws 
will be sacrificed, and the most perilous license will be 



DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 511 

pledged, for the votes of a corrupt organization supposed 
to hold the balance of power. Hundreds of thousands of 
the people's money will be granted to a fallen church, for 
fear of losing its votes ; and thus in a free country the church 
of absolutism and repression will be as munificently endowed 
by the corruption of parties as though it were established 
and supported by law. Just in proportion to the develop- 
ment of our common depravity will be the ascendency of 
unprincipled men and vile women, and the danger to our 
free institutions. 

For our safety from the effects of all social and na- 
tional crimes, we must look to God, and do the right. 
That we are not overwhelmed, but, on the contrary, rising in 
moral force before the eyes of the nations, is due to the fact 
that experimental Christian power is mighty in the land : 
and, amid all the storms and perils of sin, " the Lord of hosts 
is with us ; the God of Jacob is our refuge." 



CHAPTER X. 
DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGION. 

"Religion, as such, is reason in the soul and heart. Thus freedom in the State is 
preserved and established by religion." — Hegel. 

Thus far in the history of the Great Republic, we have 
found everywhere the presence of a power stronger than the 
power of man, producing the principles, vitalizing the facts, 
and controlling the developments, which were evidently 
essential to the success of a great Christian government. 

We have also found bold and persistent antagonisms 
to this providential effort to advance the human race be- 
yond all its precedents in intelligence, goodness, and power. 
Sometimes these antagonisms have appeared in the form of 
kingly oppression and bloody war ; sometimes of unfaithful- 
ness to the plans of God, and rights of man ; sometimes of 
deeply-seated and strongly-developed immorality : but, in 
all cases, this rebellion ao-ainst the true and the right has 
been traceable directly to the scriptural account of the fall 
and depravity of man. 

We shall still behold these opposite forces in determined, 
and sometimes fierce, collision. Intensely interesting as the 
conflict has been, it is destined to become much more so. 
The spirit of oppression assumes various forms; but it is 
always the same. It seems to be chiefly malicious toward 
man ; but its real war is with God. Since the temptation in 
Eden, the Prince of Darkness has never abandoned the pur- 
pose to rule and destroy this splendid creation ; but no 
usurpation of power has been conceded, no right of divine 
sovereignty surrendered. The active assertion of absolute 

612 







ZiLgi iyH.B^HdlL.N.T. 



liSPS^ESEI!¥4TI¥i Pi^i 



DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGION. 5 [3 

divine prerogatives is more evident at some times and in 
some places than others, but never more evident than now, 
and in this countr3\ 

The force by which God is advancing among men to sub- 
due all things to himself is true Christianity. In the devel 
opment period of our history, we have traced this power in 
every thing good and hopeful to its great source. We now 
desire to observe it more closely, and see what has been its 
position and work in the structure and vindication of our 
government, and how far its special development affords 
indications of future triumph. We shall look at it first in 
its several distinct orojanizations. 



THE PROTESTANT-EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

We have seen that the Church of England came to this 
country with its first settlers, and was recognized as the 
Established Church of Virginia and a large portion of the 
early South. In comparison with all other churches, it would 
seem thus to have secured the advantage of precedence and 
position. The strain of the Revolution, however, showed that 
its organic connection with the British Government was its 
greatest misfortune. 

" ' The war of the American Revolution,' * says our ablest 
living canonist and historian, ' left the Protestant-Episcopal 
Church in this country in a position different from that of 
every other religious denomination in the land. It alone was 
entirely broken up in its polity. The other societies had sys- 
tems involving; no connection with the Eno-lish Church : the 
war, therefore, could not affect their government ; at its close, 
tliey had but to proceed according to the rules and principles 
of an already existing organization : very slight modifica- 
tions, if any, were necessary to them. Not so, however, with 

* These extracts are taken, by permission, from " The Chums of the Protestant-Epis- 
copal Church upon the American People," by Rev. George D. Cummins, D.D., now 
Ajji-tant Bishop of Kentucky. 
65 



514 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

the Episcopal Church : it had been identified with the Estab- 
lished Church of the mother-country ; na}', was, in one sense, 
part and parcel of it. By the war, its government was en- 
tirely subverted : it had, therefore, to commence de novo the 
work of framing a system.' 

" As soon as the long struggle of the Revolution was over, 
and this Great Republic was, by God's blessing, free and inde- 
pendent, the fathers of our church were the very first tb 
move in organizing and adapting the ecclesiastical polity to 
the new nationality. 

" We contend that this church has peculiar claims upon 
the reverence and love of the American people ; that it is 
marked by characteristics which render it eminently fit to 
be a blessing to this nation in this crisis of its history. 

" The first of these features is the conservatism of the 
church. With many, we are aware, this feature is our 
reproach : to us it is our boast and rejoicing. The Epis- 
copal Church is eminently conservative ; a keeper and guar- 
dian of sacred trusts and legacies of the past, which God 
has ordained shall be unchangino; and unchano;ed like their 
great Author. 

" Why, then, does this feature of the Episcopal Church fit 
her to be a blessing to this land and nation ? Because she is 
a bulwark against the mighty tide of innovation and error 
which men falsely call progress. This age is most markedly 
an age of free-thinking, of wild and rash and dangerous 
speculation, — an age marked by the reckless casting-away 
of the faith of the fathers, and of trampling upon the work 
of their hands. ^Let us hreak their hands asunder, and cast 
away their cords from us,' is said of all the venerable tra- 
ditions and institutions of the past. New forms of error 
multiply upon every hand. New organizations of unbelief 
and false belief spring up like the rank growth of a night 
under the shade of massive forest-trees. Our ears are 
saluted on every side with the cry, 'Lo! here is Christ; lo! 
there is Christ' But amidst them all stands serene and 



DEVELOPMENT OP TRUE RELIGION 515 

calm the church of our fathers, witnessing ever to the ancient 
and pure faith, ' the truth as it is in Jesus,' the ancient 
creeds, and the apostoHc order of Christ's Church. Her 
ministers may prove faithless at her altars, and fall into 
deadly error; but no personal defection of these can stifle the 
great voice ever sounding forth from her sublime ritual, 
echoing the voices of apostles and confessors and martyrs. 

"Another characteristic of the Episcopal Church adapts it 
eminently to the needs of our times. She is the very sym- 
bol of AUTHORITY AND OF LAW. She claims to be divinely in- 
stituted. Her ministry derives its power from God, and not 
from man. She recognizes divers orders in the ministry, and 
demands submission, deference, and godly obedience, from 
one to the other. How admirably is she thus qualified 
to train her children into reverence for and obedience to 
authority, — the authority of parents, of magistrates, of 
rulers ! 

" The subject suggests to us the great mission which this 
church has to fulfil towards the American nation and peo- 
ple, and especially the part we are to perform in the new 
era upon which the nation has just entered. All danger to 
the stability of the government has passed away, — danger, 
I mean, from material sources. But a mightier, a sterner 
test yet awaits it. Its salvation or its ruin must depend 
upon moral forces. War tested its strength : peace will test 
its virtue. An unprecedented career of prosperity opens 
before us, and especially in this section of the Republic. 

" What are the perils, which, as patriot churchmen, we are 
bound to prepare for, and from which we earnestly believe 
the Church of Christ offers an ark of refuge ? They divide 
themselves into two classes, two great antagonistic forces, — 
Romanism and Infidelity, spiritual tyranny and spiritual 
license. 

" Romanism, with its wonderful sagacity as a human polity, 
its keen insight into the future, has long acted upon the con- 
viction that the seat of power in this Republic is to be the 



516 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

Valley of the Mississippi. Hence the persevering and too 
often successful efforts to secure a foothold in every settle- 
ment of the West. Hence the accumulation of property, 
purchased, to a great extent, by the contributions of propa- 
gandist societies in Europe, whose treasuries are filled by 
men hostile to our institutions. Hence the establishment of 
schools of every grade, to monopolize, if possible, the edu- 
cation of our youth, and that, too, by men and women 
trained in the cloisters of the Old World, and whose first 
love and highest duty are towards an Italian prince, and not 
to American nationality. This formidable power, more 
formidable because it holds enough truth to hide from 
men's eyes its gigantic errors, and is so earnest in practical 
benevolence as to make men forget its past history of cru- 
elty and oppression, — this corrupt church is a real danger 
to the Republic. Speaking by its pontifical head, it pro- 
claims that liberty of conscience, of speech, of thought, and 
of the press, all that we hold dearest as American citizens 
and Christians, are delusions to be exploded, and eradicated 
from men's minds. 

" Over against this peril rises the opposite, — the Antichrist 
of Infidelity, threatening to sweep away all the old foun- 
dations of our faith, — even the sure Corner-stone which 
human builders have ever rejected, but which was in the 
beginning, is now, and ever shall be, the Rock of salvation. 
Immigration is rapidly bringing to our shores vast numbers 
who have identified Christianity with the civil and ecclesias- 
tical despotisms of the Old World, and who, in their intense 
re-action from such baneful influences, have adopted the 
wildest forms of unbelief This foe to Christ and his 
Church is not idle. It has its schools, its pulpits, and its 
presses. It tends directly, and by a headlong descent, to 
socialism and to anarchy. It makes light of marriage ; it 
profanes unbhishingly God's holy day. Its end is death, — 
death to all which we have prized as most precious in the 
legacy of our departed statesmen and Christian fathers. 



DEVELOPMENT OF TE,UE RELIGIOK 517 

" What mind of man can estimate the responsibility of the 
Church's mission at such a crisis ? How shall we fulfil it ? 
how rise to the greatness, the grandeur, of the situation ? 
These are questions which may well stir our souls to their 
very depths. 

'• Her first great mission must be to bear witness to the 
truth, — 'the truth as it is in Jesus,' — to the old and ever- 
lasting gospel, ' the power of God unto salvation.' Against 
infidelity she must lift up ceaselessly the standard of her 
Lord ; ' contending earnestly for the faith once delivered to 
the saints,' the infxllibility of God's holy word, and the 
full and free salvation offered to man through the atonin<r 
sacrifice of the Lamb of God upon the cross, — '^ a full, per- 
fect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the 
sins of the whole world.' 

" ' Preach the everlasting gospel : ' this seems to be now 
the message of her ascended Lord. Tell the heedless, reck- 
less, dying millions, of salvation, of the cross, of eternal life : 
this is their profoundest want, deny it as they may ; and this 
is our highest work. We need great-hearted, mighty preach- 
ers, as in days of old. We need men of the boldness of St. 
Peter at Pentecost ; of St. Paul's death-defying heroism at 
Ephesus, at Corinth, at Jerusalem ; of the loving tenderness 
of St. John. We need the jealous love of the truth which 
dwelt in Athanasius and Augustine ; the burning eloquence 
of the golden-mouthed John of Antioch, and Gregory of 
Nazianzen. We need men of Luther's boldness and Me- 
lancthon's tenderness, the fearlessness of Latimer, the judi- 
ciousness of Hooker, and the fervid piety of Leighton and 
of Ken. May the Lord give the word, that great may be 
the company of the preachers ! 

" Against Romanism our testimony must be no less strong 
and clear. We must assert the claims of the Reformed 
Catholic Church of Christ to be the Church of the apostles 
and of early days, cleansed of the defilements of the dark 
ages. We must expose the pretensions of that corrupt 



518 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

church, by showing her real weakness, her partial truth, 
to be the most dangerous form of error. We must awaken 
to a consciousness of the great trust Christ has committed to 
our hands. We must be wise to discern the times, and to 
neglect no instrumentality which may hasten the coming of 
the kingdom of God." 

The general statistics of the Protestant-Episcopal Church 
for 1866 show 34 dioceses, 44 bishops, and 2,486 priests and 
deacons ; the whole number of clergy ,'2,530 ; parishes, 2,305 ; 
communicants added, 14,138 ; present number of communi- 
cants, 161,224; Sunday-school teachers, 17,570; scholars, 
157,813 ; contributions, $3,051,669.64. 

This church has under its charge 14 colleges, 9 theological 
seminaries, and 24 academies. Episcopalians attach high 
importance to sound and varied learning in every depart- 
ment of society. They publish 10 weekly periodicals, 5 
monthlies, and 1 quarterly. 

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES. 

Congregationalism, as w^e have seen, came to this land with 
the Pilgrim Fathers. It is to be distinguished from Puritan- 
ism, though the Puritans were Congregationalists. As a mode 
of church government, it claims conclusive authority in re- 
gard to definitions of faith, and spiritual, financial, and disci- 
plinary control for the individual church. The field of their 
greatest prosperity is New England ; but they have extended 
their labors into other parts of the United States. They 
numbered, at last reports, 2,719 ministers, 268,015 communi- 
cants, and 283,798 Sunday-school scholars. In 1860, they 
had 2,334 churches, valued at $13,327,511, accommodating 
956,351 people. The American Home Missionary Society 
(chiefly Congregationalist), in the year 1865, sustained 802 
home missionaries at an expense of $189,965; and, through 
the American Board, they sent abroad 90 missionaries, be- 
sides male and female helpers. These laborious and self- 



DEVELOPMENT OF TEUE RELIGION, 519 

sacrificing men and women have honored their Master, and 
the whole Christian Church, by the most exemplary pm-ity, 
devotion, and efficiency in the hardest foreign fields; and 
are still moving on with the evident approbation and bless- 
ing of God. The Congregationalists are vigorous workers 
through the American Tract Society, the American Sunday- 
school Union, and among the freedmen of the South. 
They publish 6 weekly periodicals and 4 able quarterlies. 
In the department of education, they labor chiefly through 
schools and colleges which are not ostensibly denominational, 
and exert a widelj^-diffused influence in favor of the broadest 
education of the masses and the highest culture of public 
men. 

With respect to their patriotism and Christian power in 
the formation, development, and defence of this Republic, in 
proportion to their numbers, history awards them a very 
high position. In our account of the struggle for colonial 
independence, so large a space was, of necessity, given to 
Congregational influence, that less is required here. We 
refer our readers especially to a large part of the period 
of preparation. Rev. B. F. Morris* says their "form of 
church government is democratic. It was of Puritan birth ; 
and, like the faith of the Puritans, it came fresh and vigor- 
ous from the word of God. It is the embodiment and prac- 
tice of the American doctrine of popular sovereignty 
applied to church government, as it is to all the civil aflliirs 
of the nation. Each church is an independent Christian 
democracy, where all the members have a right to a voice 
in the government of the church, and whose decisions are 
subject to no reversal by any other ecclesiastical tribunal. 
The Bible is regarded as the textrbook in theology and 
politics in Church and State, as it is in the form of church 
o-overnment ; and, holdino; the Bible as the standard of form 
as well as of fliith, the Puritans and their descendants con- 
stitute their ecclesiastic form after the pattern set them 

* Christian Life and Character of the CivQ Institutions of the United States, p. 421. 



520 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

in the Bible. The fruits of their faith and purity every- 
where abound. 

" ' The principles of their religious sj^stem have given birth 
and vigor to the republican habits and republican virtue 
and intelligrence of the sons of New Ena;land.' Tiie Cong^reo;a- 
tional churches were not only schools of Christian faith, but 
of freedom, in which the ministers were the teachers, and 
the people the pupils ; and whence came the men and women 
to fight and pray for freedom and the battles of the Revolu- 
tion. Durins* the Revolution, there were in New Euo-land 
575 ministers and 700 Congregational churches, almost all of 
which were in active sympathy with the cause of liberty. 
In every possible way, they gave manifold proofs of their 
patriotism. It is no violence to truth to affirm, that, without 
the devotion and earnest activity of these churches, the 
Revolution never could have been effected. Their faith, and 
form of church government, were in harmony with the 
reigning spirit of liberty, and energized with all the efforts 
of patriots with piety and ardor, and infused into that great 
conflict those Christian ideas and principles which impart a 
divine dignity and grandeur to a people struggling to be 
free." 

Rev. George Mooar says,* "It has been the peculiar for- 
tune of these churches to stand intimately connected with 
the civil life of the two Ans-lo-Saxon nations. Great writers 
not of their communion have given them the credit of 
preserving the constitutional freedom of England. Certain 
it is that these churches furnished the ecclesiastical ammu- 
nition for the fight which the Independents made under 
Vane and Milton and Cromwell. Certain it is that the 
Con2i:re2;ational churches of Eno-land now take the lead, 
as for years past they have done, in those movements which 
promise the final severance of the Church from the State. 
But it is in our own country that these churches have their 
eminent record in behalf of civil freedom and all that enters 

* Addisonian Lecture, Sau Francisco, Nov. 9, 1865. 



DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGION. 521 

most vitally into the prosperity of a free nation. It was 
given to them, and is a glory which no other churches can in 
the same sense share, that they founded, and their polity 
entered fundamentally into, this American Republic. The 
compact which the Pilgrims of ' The Mayflower ' signed was 
' the birth of popular constitutional liberty.' I speak not at 
random, nor in the spirit of empty self-gratulation. When 
De Tocqueville began his investigations in America, he began 
at Boston, and with the town-meeting. He finds that the 
purest and most distinctive elements of the American nation 
are to be found where the town-system prevails. ' The 
farther w^e go to the South ' (this is his language), 'the less 
active does the business of the township or parish become. 
It has fewer magistrates, duties, and rights ; the population 
exercises a less immediate influence on afifliirs ; the public 
spirit of the local community is less excited, and less influ- 
ential.' This town-system fades out in just the proportion 
that we recede from the region, east and west, where Con- 
gregational influence and emigration have prevailed ; for 
the town-system had its origin in the Congregational Church. 
The typical school-system of America had the same birth. 
The American college had its origin in Harvard and Yale, 
founded by Congregational churches. The republican spirit 
was earliest and strongest in New England. The church 
polity of those States, says a Tory writer, ' had hardened them 
into republics.' John Wise's book concerning that polity was 
reprinted twice at the Revolutionary epoch, and was read 
with new interest, we doubt not, by men who took a promi- 
nent part in the organization of the independent nation. 
If there be any church polity which may be called Ameri- 
can, it is this. It was born of the same impulse which gave 
us free institutions. It was thought out by the men who 
planted those institutions. All its affinities ally it to the 
American history and character. 

" It is a significant fact, confirming what has just been said, 

that, in the region covered by the late Rebellion, only one 
cc 



522 THE GREAT IlEPUBLIC. 

church of this name existed before the war. It was in no 
close connection with the sisterhood it claimed. It may be 
doubted, indeed, whether it did not rather disown such con- 
nection. The spirit of these churches was too Puritan and 
free to allow of their existence on slave soil. But no sooner 
had freedom asserted its sway there than twenty such 
churches were planted in three months, carrying with 
them the same seeds of loyalty which their sister churches 
had before borne across New York to Ohio and the great 
North-west. 

" And why did we have that bitter and fierce onset upon 
the Puritan States, unless, in those cities and towns of the 
foreflithers, there dwell in more perfect development than 
elsewhere those radical principles which have led on and still 
lead the nation ? That eminent Kentuckian, Robert J. Breck- 
enridge, who has so gallantly led the loyal thinkers of his 
State, wrote, in the height of the recent struggle, ' I never 
doubted, and now less than ever, that the roots of whatever 
produces freedom, equality, and high civilization, are more 
deeply set in New England than in any equal population on 
the face of the earth.' Let me not be arrogant enough to 
claim that all this comes from the influence of the churches 
in which these had their early home ; but the calm, philosoph- 
ical inquirer, whether he be native or foreign, who shall go 
beneath those surfaces of rugged soil and climate wliich 
seem now to be the universal solvents of social problems, 
will not rest till he trace an intimate connection between 
those churches and the freedom of this whole land. Such a 
one, reading to-day the telegrams which tell with what over- 
whelmmg majorities Massachusetts keeps her place, as of old, 
at the head of Union States, cannot fail to remember, that 
in sight of her sandy cape the Pilgrims signed their civil 
compact, and that on her soil they asserted and illustrated 
the freedom of the local church. So is it again demon- 
strated that the pure free churches of God are lights of 
nations as well as of souls : they are the salt of the political 
as well as of the moral earth." 



DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGION. 523 

THE BAPTIST CHURCH.* 

" The Baptists claim that they have been, from the first, 
the true and undeviatins^ qonservators of the ridits of man 
to self-government and soul-liberty. Early in the present 
century, the King of Holland appointed his chaplain, Dr. 
Dermont, and Dr. Ypeig, professor of theology at Gronin- 
gen, to prepare a history of the Dutch Baptists, with the 
purpose of tendering them State patronage if their origin 
seemed to warrant it. The work of these thorouo;h histo- 
rians was published at Breda in 1819 ; and the king at once 
offered them support from the State treasury, which they 
declined, as irreconcilable with their holy principle of per- 
sonal liberty, and resjDonsibility to God. These historians 
say, ^ The Baptists may be considered as the only Christian 
community which has stood since the days of the apostles, 
and as a Christian society which has preserved pure the doc- 
trines of the gospel through all ages.' They add, that ' the 
perfectly correct external and internal economy of the Bap- 
tist denomination goes to confute the erroneous notion of the 
Catholics, that their communion is the most ancient.' This 
testimony harmonizes exactly with that of Sir Isaac Newton, 
who said, ' The Baptists were the only Christians who had 
never symbolized with the Church of Rome.' And John 
Locke puts the case more strongly still when he says, ' The 
Baptists were from the beginning the friends and advocates 
of absolute liberty, just and true liberty, equal and im- 
partial liberty.' John Milton, the champion of republican- 
ism against Salmasius, was a Baptist, and exerted the greatest 
possible influence as a secretary to the council of State, under 
Cromwell, in establishing the constitutional rights and reli- 
gious liberties of Great Britain. 

" As the time approached for the colonies to shake off the 
civil yoke of Great Britain, the Baptists of America seized 
the opportunity to break off also every trammel of religious 

* From a verj able paper by Rev. Tuomas Akmitage, D.D. 



524 THE GREAT KEPUBLIC. 

tyranny in the government of the colonies themselves, as 
they should come to assume the independency of States. 
Their American history had been little else than a perpetual 
struggle for toleration among Protestant sects ; and as they 
claimed that they never were Protestants coming out of the 
Church of Rome, because they had never been in it or of it, 
but had been the outside ' heretics ' of all ages, they deter- 
mined to spare no effort to make the power and breadth of 
their principles felt in founding the grandest empire of the 
earth. Their principles were radical, rooted in the man- 
hood of man, and covering all his responsible relations toward 
both God and man. 

" The Baptists had been so schooled in conscience, and so 
scourged into unconquerable resistance to tyranny at the 
hands of the Puritans in New England, Episcopalians in 
Virginia and Georgia, and Catholics in Maryland, that they 
were prompted by every honorable incentive to organize 
in the most spirited manner for the Revolutionary contest. 
Scarcely was the first shot fired at Lexington before every 
Baptist on the continent sprang to his feet, and hailed the 
echo as the pledge of his deliverance from foreign and 
domestic oppressors. In the field, and out of the field, they 
were among the first to sacrifice and suffer for the American 
cause. 

"The first Continental Congress was held in Philadelphia 
in 1774, two years before the Declaration of Independence. 
It had been in session little more than a week when Bap- 
tist committees memorialized it for a general redress of 
grievances. On the 14th of October, they obtained a hear- 
ing, in which they besought Congress to secure the rights of 
conscience for all. Here they met with determined resist- 
ance from the Massachusetts delegation, who insisted, that, 
with them, ' it was a matter of conscience to support minis- 
ters by law,' and that the Baptists denied ' them the liberty 
of conscience in denying their right to do so.' 

" Yet, while the State-church party were resorting to every 



DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGION. 52o 

expedient for the defeat of full religious freedom, the masses 
of the people began to see that the principles of the Bap- 
tists were to shape the future civil government of the 
country. Benjamin Franklin was their firm friend. Patrick 
Henry became their able defender, against the persecu- 
tions of the Episcopal Church, at the Virginia bar. But 
they were indebted most of all to Thomas Jefferson and 
James Madison. Jefferson seems to have been greatly 
assisted by the Baptists in forming those clear and com- 
}orehensive democratic ideas which have immortalized him 
as the apostle of democracy. Curtis states, on the authority 
of Mrs. Madison, ' that there was a small Baptist church 
which held its monthly meetings for business at a short 
distance from Mr. Jefferson's house, eight or ten years 
before the American Revolution. Mr. Jefferson attended 
these meetings for several months in succession. The pastor, 
on one occasion, asked him how he was pleased with their 
(•hurch government. Mr. Jefferson replied, that it struck 
him with great force, and had interested him much ; that he 
considered it the only form of true democracy then existing 
in the world, and had concluded that it would he the best 
2)lan of government for the American colonies' 

'■After all, it was in Virginia that the Baptists fought their 
great battle. As early as 1606, every form of religion had 
been prohibited in the colony, but that of the Established 
Church of England, on pain of arrest and imprisonment. 
Four years later, the code of Sir Thomas Dale required every 
person in the colony to pass a satisfactory examination of 
their faith at the hands of the Episcopal clergy ; and, on re- 
fusal to do so, ' for the first time of refusal to be whipped ; 
for the second time to be whipped twice, and to acknowl- 
edge his fault upon the sabbath day in the congregation; 
and, for the third time, to be whipped every day until he 
hath made the same acknowledgment, and asked forgiveness 
of the same ; and shall repair to the minister to be further 
iii.structed as aforesaid.' In 1623, a tax was levied for the 



526 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

support of the Episcopal ministry. In 1643, the Grand 
Assembly enacted that none should preach but the clergy 
of the Establishment, and enjoined the governor to see to 
it 'that all nonconformists depart the colony.' The year 
1661 brought an enactment of greater stringency; namely, 
that every nonconformist should pay a fine of twenty pounds 
sterling for every month that he should absent himself from 
the Episcopal Church ; and, if absent for a year, he should 
be arrested, and required to give security for his good 
behavior, or be imprisoned. Besides, the Grand Assembly 
decreed that * all persons who refused to have their children 
christened ' by a lawful minister ' shall be amerced two 
thousand pounds of tobacco.' The result was, that no Bap- 
tist church was publicly organized till 1714 ; and the or- 
ganization then effected was due principally to the Act of 
Toleration, passed under William and Mary. But, for a 
hundred years after that, the magistrates and clergy resorted 
to every possible subterfuge to evade the Toleration Act. 
Obsolete laws were hunted up, and no form of violence left 
untried to crush them out. Dr. Hawks says, in his ' History 
of the Protestant-Episcopal Church in Virginia,' that 'no 
dissenters in Virginia experienced, for a time, harsher treat- 
ment than did the Baptists. They were beaten and impris- 
oned ; and cruelty taxed its ingenuity to devise new modes 
of punishment and annoyance.' In 1775, messengers from 
sixty Baptist churches met to consider their duty to God and 
their country. They memorialized the State Convention, — 
that convention which instructed the Virginia delegates to 
Congress to declare independence. Of that memorial, which 
covered the whole question of civil and religious freedom, 
' The Journal ' says, ' An address from the Baptists of this 
colony was presented to the convention, and read, setting 
forth, that, . . . alarmed at the oppression which hangs over 
America, they had considered what part it would be proper 
for them to take in the unhappy contest ; and had determined, 
that, in some cases, it is lawful to go to war ; and that we 



DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE EELIGION, 527 

ought to make military resistance to Great Britain in her un- 
just invasion, tyrannical oppression, and repeated hostilities.' 
The deputation which waited upon the convention consisted 
of Rev. Messrs. Walker, Williams, and Roberts. They suc- 
ceeded in enlisting three of its members in their cause of 
full religious freedom ; namely, Jefferson, Madison, and Henry, 
who submitted the document to the body. Its effect was 
powerful upon the whole country. Dr. Hawks says, in refer- 
ence to this effect, ' The Baptists were not slow in discover- 
ing the advantageous position in which the political troubles 
of the country had placed them. Their numerical strength 
was such as to make it important to both sides to secure 
their influence : they knew this, and therefore determined to 
turn the circumstances to their profit as a sect. Persecution 
had taught them not to love the Establishment, and now they 
saw before them a reasonable prospect of overturning it 
entirely. In their association, they had calmly discussed the 
matter, and resolved on their course : in this course they 
were consistent to the end.' 

"In 1779, all things being now ready for a final vote, the 
question was settled, and the Establishment was finally put 
down. The Baptists were the principal promoters of this 
work, and, in truth, aided more than any other denomination 
in its accomplishment. After their final success in this mat- 
ter, their next efforts were to procure the sale of the church 
property. Inch by inch was gained, and point by point 
taken up. For fifteen years, the Baptist General Committee 
continued its labors. In 1785, the Baptist General Conven- 
tion pressed the legislature for the passage of the Act for 
Establishing Religious Freedom, which was accomplished 
through the efforts of Mr. Madison. Two years after this, 
the Act for incorporating the Episcopal Church was re- 
pealed ; and, in the same year, the Baptists commenced an 
agitation, through their General Committee, upon the repeal 
of the glebe laws, which resulted in the sale of those enor- 
mous estates which had been appropriated to the Established 



528 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

Church by order of the legislature. Says Dr. Hawks, ' That 
vote decided the fate of the glebes. The war which they 
(the Baptists) had waged against the church was a war of 
extermination. They seemed to have known no relentings, 
and their hostility never ceased for seven and twenty years. 
They avenged themselves for their sufferings by the almost 
total ruin of the church.' Thus after a most stubborn resist- 
ance, hair's-breadth after hair's-breadth, the last vestige of 
religious oppression was swept away in Virginia. Still, it 
was not till the year 1832 that Massachusetts fully took 
her place side by side with Virginia on the subject of re- 
ligious liberty ; and Connecticut did so but a few years 
sooner. 

" A few words upon the influence of the Baptists in forming 
the General Government must close this paper. The Con- 
stitution of the United States was adopted in 1787. Imme- 
diately thereafter (March, 1788), the Virginia Baptist General 
Committee took up this question for discussion, ^ Whether 
the new Federal Constitution, which had now lately made 
its appearance in public, made sufficient provision for the 
secure enjoyment of religious libert}^' After full investiga- 
tion, it was unanimously agreed ' that it did noV The 
committee then consulted with Mr. Madison as to what could 
be done in the case, who recommended them to address Gen. 
AVashington upon the subject. They also sought the co-ope- 
ration of the Baptists in other States of the Union ; and sent 
out Elder John Leland as their representative, who secured 
their cordial co-operation. The sixth article in the new Con- 
stitution read, ' No religious test shall ever be required as a 
qualihcation to any ollice or public trust under the United 
States.' In August, 1789, the Baptists sent a well-digested 
and formal address to Washington on the subject by a dele- 
gation from their body. He pronounced their position right, 
and the next month he carried through Congress this amend- 
ment : '■ Congress shall make no law respecting an estab- 
lishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof 



DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGION. 529 

This is a part of our present Constitution. The correspond- 
ence on that occasion is worthy of the men whom it im- 
mortalizes on both sides. The Baptists said to Washington, 
' When the Constitution first made its appearance in Vir- 
ginia, we, as a society, had unusual strugglings of mind, 
fearing that the liberty of conscience, dearer to us than 
property or life, was not sufficiently secured. Perhaps our 
jealousies were heightened by the usage we received in Vir- 
ginia under the royal government, when mobs, fines, bonds, 
and prisons were our frequent repast' To which the Presi- 
dent replied, ' If I could have entertained the slightest 
apprehension that the Constitution framed by the Conven- 
tion, when I had the honor to preside, might possibly en- 
danger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical society, 
certainly I would never have placed my signature to it ; and, 
if I could now conceive that the General Government micrht 
ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience 
insecure, I beg you will be persuaded that no one would be 
more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers 
against the horrors of spiritual tyranny and every species of 
religious persecution.' Since that time, no body of Ameri- 
can Christians has been more faithful to the government, or 
has done more to perpetuate our liberties, than this denomi- 
nation during the early periods of its history. They sup- 
ported the war of 1812 as unanimously and as earnestly as 
that of 1776. 

'• With reference to the late Rebellion, the facts are too 
recent in the public mind to need repetition here. The Bap- 
tists of the South went with the South, and those of the 
West and East and North stood by the National Govern- 
ment with most remarkable unanimity." 

Baptist statistics for 1866 show in the United States 609 
associations, 12,955 churches, 8,346 ordained ministers, 92,- 
957 baptized, and 1,094,806 members;* colleges, 30 ; the- 
ological schools, 14; periodicals, 36, of which 24 are weekly, 

* American Baptist Almanac, 1868. 
67 



530 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

10 monthly or semi-monthly, and 2 quarterly; expended for 
foreign missions, for the year, $220,000 ; home missions, 
about $240,000 ; money for the Publication Society, $90,000 ; 
Bible Society, $44,000 * 

THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.f 

"The Presbyterian Church has contributed its due propor- 
tion to the moral and civil development of the United States. 
We do not propose to contrast its influence with that of other 
churches, but, by simple and direct statements of the part 
which it took in our early history, to connect its official and 
individual acts with the growth of our free institutions. 

" There are five principal sources from which the Presby- 
terian Church of this country has drawn its members, — the 
English Puritans, the Dutch Calvinists, the French Hugue- 
nots, the German Calvinists, and, more largely than from 
any other, the Scotch and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. 

" ' The history of American colonization is the history of 
the crimes of Europe.' The same remark might be made 
of the sources of American Presbyterianism. The English 
religious persecutions drove out the Puritans, and, in still 
larger numbers, the Scotch and Scotch-Irish. The Germans 
came to this country under similar pressure. The infamous 
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes drove out the French 
Huguenots ; and Holland ' had long been the gathering-place 
of the unfortunate.' With a common love of liberty, and 
deep religious principle, these made the broad foundation 
of the present Presbyterian Church. It has been estimated, 
that, by the year 1750, their number, outside of New Eng- 
land, amounted to between one and two hundred thousand. 

'* The first beginnings of the Presbyterian Church proper 
date back to about 1680. In 1716, there were four presby- 
teries, associating the churches in Long Island, the Jerseys, 

* Letter of Rev. 0. B. Stone. 

t From an admirable paper by Rev. Robert Strong, A.M. 



DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGIOISr. 531 

Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, with scattered churches 
in the Carolinas, all united under the Synod of Philadelphia. 
The growth of the church from this period was constant and 
rapid, by reason of large immigrations; until, in 1788, a 
General Assembly was constituted, associating the synods 
and presbyteries after the model of the Church of Scotland. 
It will be seen from this how widely the church was extend- 
ed, and over how large a part of the country its influence 
reached. 

" Its character and influence may be fairly though indirectly 
judged from its sources. Its members came to this country 
to seek for religious and political freedom. Having found a 
place for its exercise, they established their principles in pro- 
portion to their power. What Bancroft says of East Jersey, 
is true, in a measure, of other sections, and the other sources 
of our church: 'Scottish Presbyterians, of virtue, education, 
and courage, blending a love of popular liberty with reli- 
gious enthusiasm, came to East Jersey in such numbers as 
to give to the rising Commonwealth a character which a 
century and a half has not efi^aced.' They were friends 
of education, of strict morals, and of the sabbath. As mem- 
bers of God's Church, they upheld his laws as supreme. 
As citizens of the State, they were devoted to freedom and 
justice. In our struggle for independence, we find them- 
invariably on the right side ; the first to suffer, the first 
to fight, the first to declare for independence ; prominent 
among its supporters; and stamping on the new-formed 
government those principles of popular freedom, represen- 
tation, and confederation, which were their distinguishing 
traits. 

" In making these broad statements, we intend no ungener- 
ous comparisons, nor do we claim for these men exclusively 
the parentage of freedom. Bancroft's words are both beauti- 
ful and true : ' American independence was the work, not of 
one, nor of a few, but of all ; and was ratified, not by Congress 
only, but by the instincts and intuitions of the nation ; just 



532 THE GREAT EEPUCLIC. 

as the sunny smile of the ocean comes from every one of its 
million of waves.' But it is fiir, and our definite object, to 
inquire how far this church nurtured, and was in sympathy 
with, these popular instincts. 

"The Presbyterian Church, by its government and spirit, 
is pre-eminently republican. Its ministers are equal among 
themselves. Its churches are united by presbyteries and 
synods under a General Assembly. The authorities over 
the individual are a series of graded courts, composed of 
ministers and ruling elders, with the right of appeal for the 
maintenance of religious liberty and justice. ' Ruling elders 
are properly representatives of the people, chosen by them 
for the purpose of exercising government and discipline in 
connection with pastors and ministers.' The great repub- 
lican principles of our National Constitution are thus evi- 
dently in accord with the principles which our church has 
drawn from the Bible for its government. So, again, in its 
spirit, the church is also republican. Its doctrines of grace, 
called, since Calvin's day, Calvinism, make all men funda- 
mentally equal before God ; and they recognize no other 
distinction between man and man than such as is the result 
of the sovereign grace of God working in him without re- 
gard to condition, class, or previous merit. The doctrinal 
spirit of the church thus fits the outward form of our 
government. The church sends out the influences of its 
fundamental principles into the State of which its members 
are citizens. 

" It is only to be expected, then, that we shall find the 
Presbyterian Church in this country acting prominently in 
vindication of its liberties and government, as well as pro- 
moting religion. ' We shall find,' says Bancroft, ' that the 
first voice publicly raised in America to dissolve all con- 
nection with Great Biitain, came, not from tlie Puritans of 
New England, or the Dutch of New York, or the planters 
of Virginia, but from Scotch-Irish Presbyterians.' The refer- 
ence here is to the flimous Mecklenburg Declaration. Once 



DEVELOrMENT OF TRUE RELIGION. ' 533 

more : the first declaration for independence from the con- 
stituted authorities of a State came from North Carolina in 
April, 1776, and can be traced to the same influences * This 
reached Congress six weeks before the National Declaration 
was made. These facts are not sufficiently known in the 
country, not even among Presbyterians. They are not set 
forth here as in rivalry with Lexington and Massachusetts, 
but as fruits of identically the same principles and spirit. 
They show how the religious element in the country was 
everywhere foremost, and all sections hand in hand, in the 
struggle for liberty. The spirit of our people was shown, 
also, by the organized voice of our church. The Synod of 
New York and Philadelphia nerved her people for the com- 
ing conflict, a year before the Declaration of Independence, 
by a pastoral letter ; and appointed also a day of prayer for 
the country and for Congress, which was continued year by 
year till the close of the war. As this was our record at the 
beginning of the war, so was it sustained at the close by 
another pastoral letter from the General Synod, calling upon 
the churches to return thanks to God, and, at the same time, 
congratulating them ' on the general and almost universal 
attachment of the Presbyterian body to the cause of liberty 
and the rig;hts of mankind.' 

" From this brief summation of facts, let us turn back to the 
Mecklenburg Declaration. In May, 1775, a convention of 
delegates, twenty-seven in number, chosen by the people 
from the mihtia districts of Mecklenburg County, N.C., met 
at Charlotte to discuss their political oppressions and rights. 
Their decisions were to be binding on all the people. In 
view of the acts of these representatives, and our present 
purpose, it is impoitant to trace their religious connection. 
They were, every one of them, Presbyterians ; one a minister; 
their president, secretary, and seven others, ruling elders.f 
These issued the famous Mecklenburg Declaration of Inde- 

* Bancroft, viii. 352; Foote's Sketches of North Carolina, pp. 43, 44. 
t Foote's Sketches, pp. 34-44. 



534 - THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

pendence, from which we give one spirited extract : 'Resolved, 
3d, That we do hereby declare ourselves a free and independ- 
ent people ; are, and of right ought to be, a sovereign and 
self-governing association, under the control of no power 
other than that of our God and the general government of 
the Congress : to the maintenance of which independence we 
solemnly pledge to each other our mutual co-operation, our 
lives, our fortunes, and our most sacred honor.' 

" The most casual reader will notice the analogies in lan- 
guage and sentiment between this and the National Declara- 
tion, which was fourteen months later. 

" We have illustrated thus the warm attachment of Pres- 
byterians and their church to our national principles of 
liberty, and also their distinguished services. Two points 
remain to be illustrated, — the influence of their republican 
principles on our government, and their services in securing 
complete religious liberty. 

"On the first point, the proofs must necessarily be indirect. 
The framers of our Constitution followed no model directly 
but rather built on fundamental principles. Yet the Pres- 
byterian churches of the Reformation presented to them 
a model government, in which these principles were fully 
recognized, — religious republics, with stable and true foun- 
dations, defended by great arguments drawn both from the 
rights of man and the revelation of God. Our adoption, not 
only of the great principles, but of analogous details, shows 
the force of the influence exerted. Hon. W. C. Preston of 
South Carolina says, ' Certainly it is the most remarkable 
and singular coincidence, that the constitution of the Pres- 
byterian Church should bear such a close and striking re- 
semblance to the political Constitution of our country.' 

" On the second point, we have the testimony of Ban- 
croft: ^The rigid Presbyterians proved in America the sup- 
porters of religious freedom.' 

"In the colonial period, Congregationalism was established 
in most of New England, except Rhode Island. In all south 



DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGION, 535 

of New England, Episcopacy was the favored form. In both 
sections, other churches existed by toleration. Now, in oppo- 
sition to any kind of church establishment, even for them- 
selves, it has been asserted, and may be fairly claimed, that 
Presbyterians urged and secured the doctrine of religious 
liberty, — the entire independence of Church and State. 
Their record on this point was just as clear in those new 
States, where their influence had become overwhelming, as 
in those where they had not the supremacy. They proved 
to be above temptation. Their services during the war, 
throughout the country, were so distinguished, and their 
position so prominent, that no other denomination could 
have competed with them in securing favors from the Gen- 
eral Government. But they never made a move in this 
direction. On the contrary, they felt compelled, by a dec- 
laration of synod, ' That they ever have renounced, and still 
do renounce and abhor, the principles of intolerance,' to 
allay the apprehension that they, in turn, might prove intol- 
erant. 

" One point was still left undebated ; viz., the policy of 
establishing and supporting all religions, as against the lib- 
erty and independence of all. On this point, j^he decisive 
and final struggle was in Virginia. A bill for the support 
of religion in all denominations, by means of a general 
assessment of the people, was introduced in 1777. It was 
opposed, on principle, by Baptists, Quakers, and Presbyteri- 
ans ; fought against by petitions, memorials, and conventions; 
the agitation ranging through seven years. The honor of 
the long struggle belongs to all three parties : the power 
was exerted mainly by the Presbyterians. At the last wa- 
vering moment, in 1784, when the legislature seemed dis- 
posed still to press the measure, the Rev. John B. Smith, on 
behalf of the Presbytery of Hanover, was heard for three 
successive days against it. ' This decided the matter : the 
whole scheme was abandoned.' The great principle of the 
rightful independence of Church and State, new then, old 



536 THE GREAT REPTJBLIC. 

and glorious now, was thus established. It was adopted by 
the smaller States on each side of Virginia, — Maryland and 
Delaware, the Carolinas and Georgia, — and in 1789 was 
incorporated into the Federal Constitution." 

The following extract is from the report of Professor 
Henr}^ B. Smith to the General Conference of the Evan- 
gelical Alliance at Amsterdam : — 

" Outside of New England, where Congregationalism has 
the ground, the Presbyterian churches extend, in various 
subdivisions, throughout the country. The main branch of 
the church was divided^ in 1838, on divers questions of doc- 
trine and polity. The two main divisions are popularly, not 
ecclesiastically, known as Old School and New School. The 
Old School, 1867, reports 35 synods, 176 presbyteries, 2,622 
churches, 2,302 ministers, 246,350 communicants, and con- 
tributions to the amount of $3,731,164. In its foreign mis- 
sions it has 40 churches, 330 ministers and teachers, and 
1,200 members. The New School, 1867, reports 23 synods, 
109 presbyteries, 1,870 ministers, 161,539 communicants, 
163,242 Sunday-school scholars, and contributions of $3,- 
106,870 for all its objects. Its increase last year was 10,938 
members, and nearly $1,000,000 in contributions." Meas- 
ures are in progress for uniting these two departments of 
the church ; which it is earnestly hoped may succeed. 

In all the great departments of education, literature, and 
missionary effort, the Presbyterians are among the most 
enlightened, self-sacrificing, and energetic of our Christian 
citizens. The Old School publish 11 weekly periodicals, 4 
monthlies, and 2 quarterlies, of the highest grade ; the New 
School, 11 weeklies, 10 monthlies, 1 semi-monthly, and 1 
quarterly, of high literary merit. The Presbyterians sup- 
port numerous colleges and seminaries, generally not osten- 
sibly denominational; and, while they labor earnestly to cir- 
culate their own literature, they give their most devoted 
energies to the American Bible Society, and all the other 
great American institutions. 



DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGION. 537 

THE METHODIST-EPISCOPAL CHURCH * 

" As surely as the sun makes the day, religion has made 
this Republic. In the building of our free institutions, the 
churches have been the great formative agencies. Each 
has had its own work, and left its peculiar impress. Al- 
though the youngest of the great Christian organizations, we 
claim, that, in forming the character and determining the 
place of this nation in history, the Methodist-Episcopal 
Church has been among the most influential. 

" The itinerant system of ministerial labor was precisely 
adapted to the wants of a new and growing country. 

" The older churches had local strength ; but they lacked 
the instrumentalities whereby the gospel could be made to 
keep pace with the advancing lines of settlement and the 
spread of population. Myriads of immigrants were leaving 
the shores of the Old World to seek a home in the New. Mul- 
titudes of our own people were annually migrating from the 
seaboard, and the abodes of civilization, to explore the wilds 
that lay westward. The older Christian bodies saw the 
people passing away from churches and ministers, but had 
no aggressive force, no arm of sufficient length, no agency 
sufficiently mobile, to follow the rapid march. 

"The Methodist itinerancy supplied the lacking means. It 
rendered it possible to maintain regular religious service in 
any little neighborhood where there was a single family 
willing to open their house for divine worship, and entertain 
the minister for a day. The class-meeting bound the con- 
verts together in the bonds of tender Christian love, and, in 
the hour of spiritual peril, brought to the help of each the 
strength of Christian friendship. The quarterly meeting, 
with its generous hospitality and social enjoyments, its three 
or four stirring sermons, its love-feast, with its rich experi- 
ences and thrilling songs, was a holy festival, worth all the 
saints' days in the calendar. The annual conferences were 

* From an able paper by Rev. J. T. Crane, D.D. 
68 



538 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

councils of war, where Christian soldiers told of their victories 
with tears of joy, and where they laid their plans for bolder 
campaigns and more extended conquests. 

" Methodism not only sought out the people, but won 
them. From the very beginning, the great Head of the 
Cliurch crowned its labors with wonderfid success. Oro-an- 
izing its feeble scattered societies in 1784, with only 83 
preachers and 15,000 members, it numbered, seven years 
thereafter, 259 preachers and 63,269 members. In 1816, 
fifty years from the date of Philip Embury's first sermon, 
there were 695 preachers and 214,235 members. In 1866, 
at the close of a hundred years of evangelical labor, the 
Methodist-Episcopal Church numbered a mighty host of 
7,576 ministers and 1,032,184 members. 

" Meanwhile, the Church, broad and elevated in her plans, 
and active and strong to execute them, has entered into 
every department of legitimate labor, and gathered with an 
unwearied hand all the elements of evangelical power and 
efficiency. Our sabbath schools reported last year (1866) 
153,039 officers and teachers, and 914,587 scholars, with 
2,542,000 volumes in the libraries ; while the children's 
paper ('The Sunday-school Advocate') circulated 300,000 
copies, and the expenses of the schools amounted to $285,- 
000 for the year. Statistics for 1867 show that we have 
1.145,184 communicants, 30,571 preachers, and more th^n 
1,000,000 Sunday-school scholars. In the department of 
religious publication, we have the book concern, with 7 
depositories in our principal cities, with an aggregate capital 
of $1,213,000, and sales amounting, in 1866, to $1,245,000. 
The church also publishes 9 papers, with a weekly circu- 
lation of 147,000 copies, besides an able and successful 'Quar- 
terly Review.' For the general education of the people, we 
have 23 colleges, 3 theological schools, and 84 seminaries or 
academies ; in all, 110 institutions of learning, with 770 in- 
structors and 22,305 students. In the year named, the 
church expended $275,000 for foreign, and $254,000 for 



DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE KELIGION. 539 

domestic missions; contributed $107,000 for the gratuitous 
circulation of the Scriptures ; collected $23,349 for the Ti act 
cause; gave $19,850 for the Sunday-school Union, and $50,- 
000 to aid weak societies in the erection of houses of wor- 
ship ; and at the same time has made, chiefly for purposes 
of education and church extension, a grand Memorial Cen- 
tenary Collection, amounting to $7,000,000. This exliibit 
of numbers and results belongs to the original family of 
Methodism on this continent, — the Methodist -Episcopal 
Church. Eight other organizations, numbering more than 
1,000,000, identical in doctrine, and differing little in us;ige, 
have arisen from the parent stock. 

" It will thus be seen, that, by a fair estimate, the Method- 
ists mould the principles and influence the actions of about 
one-third of our entire population. 

"The Methodist-Episcopal Church has not gained its great 
numerical strength by any indirection. We have not courted 
the suffrages of the frivolous, tlie worldly, or the wicked, by 
flattering them with the promise of an easy way to heaven. 
For the whole hundred years of our histor}', we have borne 
a steady testimony against wrong, urged the necessity of 
inward and outward holiness, the reality of spiritual i eligion, 
and the value of high attainments in the divine life. 

"The simple, just, and generous theology of Methodism 
has been the means, in the Divine Hand, of saving the nation 
from fatal religious error, and of breathing a new life into 
the older religious organizations. 

" A century ago, the religious state of the country was very 
far from being satisfactory to the pious and the thoughtful. 
"The prospect was dark. Without virtue as well as intelli- 
gence among the people, free institutions are impossible. 
New-born liberty was in danger of perishing in its infancy. 
A new spirit on the part of the churches was needed. »^^o;ue 
more eflicient instrument of aggressive warfare, some new 
agency strong enough and bold enough to cope with the 
evils of the age, was required. God was not limited, indeed, 



540 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

to any one mode of accomplisliing his great purposes ; yet 
none will dispute the fact that he chose Methodism as the 
chief agency for doing the work. He called to this ministry 
Dr. Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury, and their fellow- 
laborers; men of deep piety and fervent zeal, men of mighty 
faith and courage and energy. They did not appear with 
a novel system of theology. The great doctrines of the 
Triune God, of human depravity, a general atonement and 
universal grace, and man's consequent just accountability, 
were the theme and the life of sermon, song, and prayer. 
The people heard and felt. The heart of the nation was 
reached, and its conscience was roused. A new church 
organization, fresh, vigorous, laborious, shot up into sudden 
strength, and began its career of evangelical power. The 
older churches caught the inspiration ; and a new era of 
religious faith and hope, and bold aggressive movement 
against the enemy, was inaugurated. Thus the tide of 
spiritual death which threatened to overwhelm the nation 
was arrested ; and large numbers of the people were deeply 
imbued with the feeling of personal liberty against despot- 
ism on the one hand, and licentiousness on the other. All 
this immense moral power has wrought against every species 
of bondage, and in favor of the true republican liberty which 
is triumphant in the United States to-day. 

" Methodism, at the very beginning, joined battle with the 
sins that threatened national ruin. There is a gigantic crime 
which has haunted the footsteps of civilization through all 
human history. As soon as a people emerge from barbarism, 
and begin to realize their superiority over the savages 
around them, they are tempted to take advantage of their 
strength to enslave the weak and the helpless. And slavery 
is sure to curse the oppressor. The plagues which smote the 
Egyptians are but the symbols of the multiform evils which 
this crime against humanity brings in its. train. Sooner or 
later, it rolls a Red Sea of slaughter and woe upon those who 
deny justice and mercy. The early Methodists spoke out 
boldly against the wrong. 



DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGION. 541 

" Intemperance is another gigantic evil, the sin and the 
shame of our Christianity and our civihzation. The rule of 
Mr. Wesley, incorporated into the discipline of the infant 
societies at the very dawn of Methodism, not only prohibits 
intoxication, but forbids buying or selling spirituous liquors, 
or drinking them, unless in cases of extreme necessity. 
As early as 1780, it was resolved to disown those who 
distil grain into liquor. This was almost half a century 
before Dr. Nott, Dr. Beecher, and others who are commonly 
regarded as the pioneers of the Temperance reform, began 
their labors. Let it be remenbered, too, that the Methodist- 
Episcopal Church advanced at once to the true ground, — 
total abstinence from all that intoxicates. Here, also, the 
church has borne a steady testimony from the beginning. 

" The spirit of Methodism harmonizes with the spirit of 
liberty, and tends to strengthen in the popular mind the 
principles upon which free institutions are based. When 
religion enters into the heart, and becomes the master- 
passion, it cannot fail to influence the mental attitude in 
regard to all questions which have in them a moral element. 
Not only will it demand care and caution in coming to con- 
clusions, but often supply the premises by which the conclu- 
sion is reached. He who receives cordially and in good faith 
a system of religious doctrine, will find, that by virtue of a 
certain mental process which is too subtile and swift to need 
language, or even allow its use, it supplies the light by 
which he views, and the rule by which he measures, a thou- 
sand other thino-s. 

o 

"The generous theology of Methodism favors civil liberty. 
Personal freedom, the ballot, popular education, equality be- 
fore the law for all citizens, are the natural corollaries of the 
doctrines of a general atonement and universal grace. No 
system less broad can justify the republican argument, or 
become the inspiration and the organizing power of univer- 
sal liberty. They who are convinced that Jesus Christ, by 
the grace of God, tasted death for every man, must be bold, 



542 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

indeed, if they dare to oppress their fellows, denying them 
their rights. Thus the theology of Methodism has infused 
a silent yet powerful element into our political life, incul- 
cating a broad humanity, recognizing the divine interest in 
every human being, and asserting everywhere fraternity 
and the rights of all races and all men. 

" Americans reason. As they pass from the house of God 
to the civil assembly of the citizens, they cannot in either 
place wholly forget what they hear in the other. He who 
glowed with patriotic delight as he listened to the enuncia- 
tion of republican doctrines, demanding equal rights for all 
men, because God created them free and equal, rejoiced 
when the pulpit proclaimed salvation for all. He who 
listened to the arguments of the Methodist ministry, and was 
convinced that God is no respecter of persons, and went 
thence to the popular meeting, and heard the great truths 
of the Declaration of Independence, felt that his religious 
belief, and the American theory of civil government, rest on 
the same foundation of eternal truth. Thus Methodism has 
re-enforced the fundamental principles of our Republic, and 
strengthened their hold upon the popular mind. 

" And, while Methodism has thus been powerfully progres- 
sive in its influence upon our civil institutions, it has always 
carried with it those salutary tendencies which make prog- 
ress safe and real. Revolutions do not always lead to free- 
dom. A people may break the chains of tyranny, and stand 
for a moment free, but, having no solid religious conviction 
to keep them from excess, destroy by folly what they 
bought with blood. Methodism has cast the prophetic salt 
into the fountain of our national life. Turning many from 
sin to righteousness, and warring everywhere against the 
vices which unfit men for good citizenship, laying upon all 
within her pale the strong restraints of her preaching and 
her discipline, she checks the passions which are destructive 
to law and public order. Preaching a free salvation in free 
churches, to which the poor, and the stranger of our own or 



DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGION. 543 

other lands, were welcome, she has built up the nation in the 
principles of rational liberty, not less really and effectually 
than she has strengthened the walls of the general Church. 

" The Methodist-Episcopal Church, by its peculiar organi- 
zation, has tended powerfully to the preservation of our 
national unity. In 1784, when our church adopted its 
ecclesiastical organization, it was the first among the re- 
ligious bodies of the country to affirm the rightful inde- 
pendence of the American people, and recognize the new 
government; thus binding all our people to loyalty and civil 
obedience. On Thursday, May 28, the Conference met in 
New York, Bishops Coke and Asbury being both in attend- 
ance. By order of the Conference, an address to President 
Washington was prepared ; and, on the second day of the 
session, the bishops waited upon him, and performed the 
office assigned them. Bishop Asbury reading the address. 
In the name of the church, they congratulate Washington 
on his ' appointment to the presidentship of these States,' 
recognize his great services, and declare that they ' place as 
full confidence in his wisdom and integrity for the preserva- 
tion of those civil and religious liberties which have been 
transmitted to us by the j)rovidence of God, and the glorious 
Revolution, as we believe ought to be reposed in man.' They 
speak also of ' the most excellent constitution of these States, 
which is at present the admiration of the world ; ' and pledge 
their fervent prayers for him, and the welfare of the nation 
over which he was called to preside. 

" Washington made a fit reply, thanking them, and the 
society which they represented, ' for the demonstration of 
affection ; ' expressing a hope, that, ' by the assistance of Di- 
vine Providence,' he would ' not altogether disappoint the 
confidence reposed in him ;' and assuring them ' in particu- 
lar, that he took in the kindest part the promise they made 
of presenting their prayers at the throne of grace for him ; 
and that he likewise implored the divine benediction on 
them and their religious community.' 



544 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

" Its language having become inapplicable, by reason of the 
abrogation of the Act of Confederation and the adoption of 
the Constitution, the 23d Article of Relio;ion was chanujed so 
as to recognize the Constitution of the United States as the 
supreme law of the land ; and a new clause was added, 
affirming* that ' the said States are a soverei":n and inde- 
pendent nation,' as if the author of the change had received 
prophetic warning of the events of later days. With its 
whole weight, our church gravitates in the direction of 
national unity. The church itself is a unit, ' fitly joined 
together, and compacted by that which every joint suppli- 
eth.' The common pastorate of all the ministers over all 
the churches, the methods of distributing ministerial service, 
the mode of supervision by means of the presiding eldership, 
and the general superintendency, are so many strong cords 
wherev/ith to ' undergird the ship.' Every pastor and every 
society feels an interest in every other, because, by the law 
of the church, they are liable at any time to be brought 
into the closest relations. The rapid interchange of pastors 
through all the land has tended to preserve both ministry 
and laity from local narrow views, and make their love for 
the church in its unity equal to their regard for the local 
society. Both ministry and laity are trained to love 
and respect the whole church. Every individual man 
shares the pain of every local failure and the joy of every 
victory. Every church is but one wheel in the vast en- 
ginery, and feels every impulse and every jar, however 
remote the cause. The same pulse throbs throughout the 
whole body, from the heart to the farthest extremity. 

"A church thus compactly organized, instinct in every fibre 
with zeal, energy, and courage, wielding a living theology, 
harmonizing so perfectly with the spirit of our civil insti- 
tutions, winning the suffrages of so vast a multitude, and 
binding them together in so warm a brotherhood, could ncH 
fail to infuse a large measure of its own distinctive spirit 
into the nation's life," 



DEVELOPMENT OF TliUE RELIGION. 54,5 



OTHER CHURCHES. 

Lutherans. — The Lutheran Church numbers, in all, 421 
synods, 1,644 ministers, 2,915 congregations, and 323,825 
connnunicants. Of these, there are connected with the Gen- 
eral S^-nod 23 synods, 695 ministers, 1,255 congregations, and 
110,450 communicants. The rest are embraced in other 
synods. There is a general synod at the South. A new 
synod is projected, on the basis of a more strict adherence 
to the symbols. A convention for this object was held at 
Reading, Penn., in December, 1866, attended by representa- 
tives from 15 synods; but no further action has yet been 
taken. The two Western Scandinavian synods number 
40,000 members. The emigration from Scandinavia alone 
last year was 29,000, chiefly Lutheran. There are 29 
Lutheran periodicals in the United States (14 of which are 
in the German language), 15 theological schools, and 17 
colleges. 

Reformed Church in America. — Churches, 444 ; ministers, 
461 ; candidates, 8 ; communicants, 57,846 ; Sunday-school 
scholars, 46,411 : contributions for congregational objects, 
$765,980 ; for benevolent objects, $277,209. Its last synod, 
by a vote of 109 to 10, submitted the question of dropping 
the words "Dutch" and "Protestant" from its title, and 
adopting the name of " The Reformed Church in America ; " 
and the change has been effected. They have a theological 
seminary with 34 students, and two colleges with 264 stu- 
dents. They have thoroughly organized and efficient boards 
of education ; publication and domestic and foreign missions, 
with foreign missions in India, China, and Japan. 

German Reformed. — This church has 2 synods, 29 classes, 
476 ministers, 1,162 churches, 109,258 communicants, 11,088 
baptisms, 5 colleges, 3 theological schools, and 9 periodicals : 
contributions for benevolent objects, $60,882. The Tercen- 

69 



546 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

tenary of the Heidelberg Catechism was duly celebrated, and 
an excellent edition of the same was issued. In connection 
with this, more than ^100,000 were raised for the colleges 
of the church. It is proposed to drop the word " German " 
from the title of the church. 

The United Presbyterian Church was formed in 1853 by 
a union of the Associate Presbyterian and Associate Re- 
formed Churches. It reports, 1867, 7 synods, 54 presby- 
teries, 543 ministers, 717 congregations, 63,489 members, 
arid $1,277,204 contributions. In the eight years of its 
history, it has increased in its ministry from 408 to 543 ; 
and in its contributions, from an average of forty-one cents 
per member to an average of nine dollars. It has mission- 
ary presbyteries in India, China, Syria, and Oregon. It is 
antislavery and close communion in its character. 

The Presbyterian Church in the United States (the style 
of the Southern Church) was formed by a union of the Old 
and New School Churches (South) during the war. They 
report, 1867, 10 synods, 46 presbyteries, 66,528 communi- 
cants, 829 ministers, 1,290 churches. The contributions are 
set down as $409,282. There are 340 churches and 4 pres- 
byteries from which there is no report. The numbers given 
are probably much below the facts. There is no present 
prospect of re-union with the Northern churches. 

The Cumberland Presbyterian Churches, North and South, 
are re-united. They had, before the war, 588 ministers, and 
48,600 members. 



■'y^ 



The Reformed Presbyterians in the North have two synods; 
one of about 100, the other of about 60 ministers. 

The United Brethren in Christ (organized 1744) is " Ar- 
minian in doctrine, and Methodistic in polity." It has 4,255 



DEVELOPMENT OF TEUE EELIGIOK 547 

preaching places, 3,297 societies, and 91,570 members ; con- 
tributions, $341,279. 

The Moravians. — 89 mission stations ; 307 preaching 
places ; 213 missionaries, male and female, and 882 assistants ; 
expended, $120,189. Under the religious instruction of the 
Unitus Fratrum, there are 177,669 persons in Europe and 
America. The adult communicants number 14,240. 

The Friends, or Quakers, of the orthodox side, number 
54,000.* 

Freewill Baptists. — This denomination of evang-elical 

o 

Christians numbers (including Canada West) 31 yearly and 
147 quarterly meetings, 1,264 churches, and 56,738 mem- 
bers. They have a biblical school and three colleges ; a print- 
ing establishment, publishing a quarterly review, a weekly, 
and a sabbath-school paper semi-monthly. They practise 
baptism by immersion. They are Arminian with respect to 
the doctrine of freewill, and are open communists. 

Concernino- other evan^j^elical churches and relio^ious or- 
ganizations, such information as our limited space will allow, 
in addition to what has been already given, will be found in 
the following statistical tables : — 

SUMMARY AND RESULTS. 



Churches. 


Ministers 


Members. 


Methodist-Episcopal Church . 


14,889 


1,032,184 


Methodist-Episcopal, South 


7,495 


708,949 


African Methodist-Episcopal . 


2,613 


53,670 


Protestant Methodist 


1,560 


105,120 


Evangelical Association . 


727 


51,185 


African Zion Methodist-Episcopal 


661 


30,600 


Wesleyan Methodist 


400 


25,620 


Free Methodist 


136 


3,655 


Primitive .... 


64 


1,805 


Total .... 


. 28,545 


2,012,788 



* The above statistics are taken chiefly from the Report of Rev. Henry B. Smith, D.D. 



548 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 



Churches. 
Baptist Church 
Freewill Baptist . 
Campbellite Baptist 
Anti-mission 
Winebrenarians 
Tunkers 

Six-principle Baptist 
Seventh-day Baptist 

Total 

Presbyterian, Old School 
Presbyterian, New School 
Cumberland 
Southern Presbyterian 
United Presbyterian 
Reformed Presbyterian 
Associate Reformed 
Associated Presbyterian 

Total 



Ministers. 

7,869 

1,050 

1,000 

700 

273 

100 

72 

62 



Members. 

1,041,003 

56,738 

200,000 

50,000 

23,800 

• 20,000 

3,000 

6,796 



11,126 


1,401,337 


2,346 


287,360 


1,779 


138,074 


1,150 


103,062 


840 




560 


67,900 


119 


16,660 


91 


2,581 


41 


1,000 



6,926 



616,637* 



AGGREGATE NUMBERS. 



Denominations. 


Ministers. 


Members. 


Methodists 


. 28,545 


2,012,788 


Baptists . . . . 


. 11,148 


1,401,337 


Presbyterians . 


. 6,705 


616,637 


C on gregationalists 


. 2,719 


268,015 


Episcopalians . 


. 2,530 


161,224 


Lutherans 


. 2,533 


269,985 


United Brethren 


. 1,677 


102,983 


German Reformed 


505 


91,200 


Reformed (Dutch) 


436 


54,268 


Moravian . . . . 


40 


5,859 


Friends . . . . 




94,672 


Minor sects . . . 


230 


37,600 


Grand total 


. 57,068 

ti«Hp« o-ivf»n in rlJflPprpnf 


5,116,568 

nlapf"*! is inr-vifMlilfi 



reason that they represent the facts at different periods. Simultaneous and full reports 
of the several churches do not exist. This, however, docs in no way affect the argument 
for which these fiitures arc brouLiht forward. 



DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE EELIGIOK 



549 



HOUSES OF WORSHIP. 



Denominations. < 


Church Edifices. 


Accommodations. 


Value. 


Methodists . . . 


19,883 


6,259,799 


$33,093,371 


Baptists . . . . 


11,221 


3,749,553 


19,799,378 


Presbyterians . 


5,061 


2,088,838 


24,227,359 


Roman Catholics 


2,550 


1,404,437 


26,774,119 


Conffreo-ationaHsts 


2,334 


956,351 


13,327,511 


Episcopalians 


2,145 


847,296 


21,665,698 


Lutherans 


2,128 


757,637 


5,385,179 


Christians . . . . 


2,068 


681,016 


2,518,045 


Union 


1,366 


371,899 


1,370,212 


Cumberland Presbyterians 


820 


262,978 


914,256 


German Reformed 


676 


273,697 


2,422,670 


Universalists 


664 


235,219 


2,856,095 


Freewill Baptists 


530 


148,693 


2,789,295 


Friends 


765 


269,084 


2,544,507 


Reformed Dutch 


440 


211,068 


4,453,850 


United Presbyterians . 


389 


1,312,275 


1,312,275 


Unitarians 


264 


138,213 


4,438,316 


Tunkers . 


163 


67,995 


162,956 


Reformed Presbyterians 


136 


48,897 


386,635 


Mennonites 


109 


36,425 


137,960 


Jewish 


77 


' 34,412 


1,135,300 


Adventists 


70 


17,120 


101,170 


Winebrenarians . 


65 


27,700 


74,175 


Swedenborgians . 


58 


15,395 


321,200 


Seventh-day Baptists . 


53 


17,864 


107,200 


Moravians . 


49 


20,316 


227,450 


Spiritists . 


17 


6,275 


7,500 


Shakers 


12 


5,200 


41,000 


Six-principle Baptists . 


8 


1,990 


8,150 


Minor sects 


26 


14,150 


895,100 


Total 

Tn Til 1 1 • 1 


54,147 
p J 1 - 


20,281,792 
1 _ i* 


$173,497,932 * 

- C J.l_ - TT-_ 'j^ _ 1 



From reliable statistics of the population of the United 
States, and of the evangelical churches, Rev. D. Dorches- 



* Taken from the census of 1860. It cannot be claimed that the figures are absolutely 
correct ; but they can be relied upon to show, in general, the relative material progress of 
the several denominations. 



550 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

ter has ascertained that the ratio of communicants to 
the inhabitants ten years of age and upwards was as fol- 
lows : — 

In 1800, one communicant for 10 5-6 inhabitants. 
„ 1832, „ „ „ 7 1-3 



1843, 
1850, 
1860, 



5 4-25 
4 31-33 

4 2-8 



" During this same period, the population has increased 
nearly sixfold ; but the communicants of evangelical churches 
have increased nearly fourteen and one-half fold, or the in- 
crease of , church-membership has been two and a half times 
greater than the population." This progress is most encour- 
aging. 

It would certainly be a wrong use of language to call 
these dry statistics. They point directly to the great doc- 
trine of the atonement by the death of Christ, to the inspira- 
tion of the Holy Scriptures, the publication of the gospel by 
authority of God, the privilege of believing prayer, the new 
creation by the Holy Spirit; to the great reformation of 
heart and life, of principles and manners, distinguishing civ- 
ilization from barbarism. What man will claim the ability 
to estimate the influence upon the morals and piety of this 
nation which has come from all the sermons, and other 
pastoral labors, of more than fifty thousand ministers of the 
gospel, with those of their predecessors, since the landing of 
the first Christian colonists on this continent ? Who will 
venture to describe the power of all the prayers, exhorta- 
tions, tears, and examples of the unquestionably good among 
the more than five millions of enrolled laboring Protestant 
Christians of the country, and the multitudes who have gone 
before them ? Were it possible to abstract all these benign 
influences from our history, the world would then see how 
dark a moral night would have set in upon this fair portion 



DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGION. 551 

of the globe without them. We can, however, now say, 
iinequivocally, that the Holy Bible, the Christian pulpit, 
Christian education, the religious press, and experimental 
piety, have been the chart of our liberties, the inspiration 
of our patriotism, the regeneration of civil society, and the 
exaltation of the national character. 

As a clear result, these States are proclaimed to the world, 
in their fundamental laws, to be Christian States ; thus rep- 
resenting the common faith of the people. By authority 
of Congress, chaplains have been from time to time appointed 
to implore the blessing of God upon the Senate and House 
of Representatives, and "all in authority." By law, this 
religious provision is extended to our army and navy. 

The holy sabbath is recognized in the Constitution. Of 
this the President is duly informed, by express provision, in 
Art. I., sect. 7. Dr. Adams says, " In adopting this provision, 
it was clearly presumed by the people that the President of 
the United States would not employ himself in public business 
on Sunday. The people had been accustomed to pay special 
respect to Sunday from the first settlement of the country. 
They assumed that the President also would wish to respect 
the day. The people, in adopting the Constitution, must 
have been convinced that the public business intrusted to 
the President would be greater in importance and variety 
than that which would fall to the share of any functionary 
emploj^ed in a subordinate station. The expectation and 
confidence, then, manifested by the people of the United 
States, that their President will respect their Sunday by 
abstaining from public business on that day, must extend, 
a fortiori, to all employed in subordinate stations." Senator 
Frelinghuysen, before Congress, in 1836, said, " Our prede- 
cessors wisely determined, in accordance with the sentiments 
of at least nine-tenths of our people, that the first day of the 
week should be the sabbath of our government. This public 
recognition is accorded to the sabbath in the Federal Con- 
stitution. The President of the United States, in the dis- 



552 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

charge of the high functions of his legislative department, is 
relieved from all embarrassment on Sunday. Both Houses 
of Congress, the offices of the State, Treasury, War and Navy 
Departments, are all closed on Sunday." And again : " The 
framers of the Constitution, and those who for many years 
administered it, doubtless had in their eye the Jirst day, the 
sabbath of the Christian religion. They were legislating, 
not for Jews, Mohammedans, infidels, pagans, atheists, but 
for Christians ; and, beUeving the Christian religion the only 
one calculated to sustain and perpetuate the government 
about to be formed, they adopted it as the basis of the infant 
Republic. This nation had a religion, and it was the Chris- 
tian religion. Christianity is the religion of this country, 
and, as such, is recognized in the whole structure of its 
government, and lies at the foundation of all our civil and 
political institutions : in other words, Christianity, as really 
as republicanism, is part and parcel of our laws." 

GENERAL CHRISTIAN SOCIETIES. 

The American Bible Society, during the first ten years of 
its history, circulated 439,580 copies of the Bible ; the second 
decade, 1,549,848 copies; the third, 2,510,156 copies; the 
fourth, 6,772,338 copies; the fifth, 10,138,044 copies: thus 
furnishing to the needy by gift, and at very low rates to those 
desiring to purchase, in all their various dialects, 21,409,966 
copies of the Holy Scriptures. The Missionary, Tract, and 
Sunday-school Societies have felt this strong influence, and, 
in return, become grand pervading agencies for reaching the 
world. Orphan asylums, penitentiaries, hospitals, soldiers' 
homes, homes for the friendless, and, indeed, the haunts of 
the most degrading vices, have been reached by this indis- 
pensable means of instruction, comfort, elevation, and sal- 
vation. 

The funds furnished by business industry, and very largely 
by pure Christian liberality, show the public confidence in 



DEVELOPMENT OF TKUE RELIGION. 553 

the Bible Society, and the providential supply of its benev- 
olent demands. During the first ten years, the figures 
reached $449,552.73 ; the second decade, $954,897.94 ; the 
third, $1,233,039.95; the fourth, $3,042,632.44; and the 
fifth, $4,754,850.68: making the grand total in fifty years, 
up to 1866, of $10,434,95374. 

The receipts from all sources, for the year ending 1867, 
coming from thirty-nine States and Territories, and from 
" twelve foreign countries, which have contributed small 
amounts," were $734,089.14 ; and the entire number of 
volumes issued by the society during fifty-one years is 
22,667,926. Thus a great national book is circulated every- 
where under the patronage of national men, for the purifi- 
cation and elevation of national patriotism. 

The American Sunday-School Union, at their annual meet- 
ing in 1830, resolved, "in reliance upon divine aid, within 
two years to establish a Sunday school, in every destitute 
place where it is practicable, throughout the Valley of the 
Mississippi." In eighteen months, 2,867 schools were estab- 
lished, and 1,121 visited and revived. In the year 1833, this 
resolution was extended in time, and enlarged to embrace 
the Southern States generally. It was reported, that, in 
nine years, there had been established in connection with 
the society, or by its direct agency, 14,550 Sunday schools, 
containing 109,000 teachers and 760,000 scholars. Accord- 
ing to the report in 1860, during the eleven years preceding, 
the missionaries of the society organized about 20,000 new 
schools, containing about 760,000 scholars, taught by 127,000 
teachers. During these years, the number of schools visited, 
aided, and strengthened by these missionaries, was much 
greater. During the past year (1866-7), these missionaries 
organized 1,671 new schools, having 10,559 teachers and 
67,204 scholars. They visited and aided 6,090 schools, hav- 
ing 45,175 teachers and 351,485 scholars. They visited 
35,924 families; distributed 9,821 Scriptures and books, and 



554 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

other Sunday-school requisites, amounting to $15,332.* 
Who can estimate the national power of these regenerat- 
ing agencies, forming and directing the rising generations 
of American citizens? 

The American Tract Society (Boston). — This institution, 
essentially New England in principles and spirit, after some 
twelve years of independent labors in the circulation of 
Christian tracts and other religious literature, was merged 
in the American Tract Society in New York. In 1859, 
determining to send forth everywhere publications thorough- 
ly antislavery, it resumed its distinct organization. Since 
that time, it has accomplished a work of the greatest na- 
tional importance. 

" It has furnished its publications to laborers, clerical and 
lay, wherever they were needed and there was a call for 
them. Sailors and landsmen ; the poor and neglected in our 
cities and large towns, as well as in the sparsely-populated 
portions of the country ; various institutions, educational, 
humane, reformatory, and penal ; sabbath schools, feeble 
churches," and especially the soldiers of our army and the 
freedmen of the South, — have been cared for and instructed 
by the agents and publications of this society. " It has re- 
ceived for its charitable operations, from May 1, 1859, to May 
1, 1867, eight years, $38,688.977 : of this amount, $243,787.- 
41 have been expended in the gratuitous distribution of re- 
ligious books, papers, tracts, &c. During the same time, the 
number of books, tracts, &c., published, has been 16,091,276 ; 
copies of periodicals of different kinds, 24,541,700. Total, 
40,632,976." t 

The American Tract Society (New York). — This institu- 
tion has on its list 3,800 distinct publications, "of which 775 
are volumes." 

* From a paper by Rev. S. B. S. Bissell. 

t From a paper by Rev. William C. Child, D.D. 



DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGION. 555 

"Among the home publications are 900 in foreign lan- 
guages for immigrants, thousands of whom have thus been 
enabled to read ' in their own tongue the wouderfal works 
of God,' with great joy, and often with saving benefit. 

" Of the periodicals, a total of over 106,000,000 copies 
have been issued, or, at present rates, 6,000,000 yearly, to 
500,000 subscribers. 

" Of the other home publications, 21,000,000 volumes have 
been printed, and 2,295,000,000 pages of tracts, — a flood 
of gospel truth which has certainly told with immense power 
on the character and destiny of America. Probably there is 
no inhabited country in the land where some of these publi- 
cations might not be found, and no citizen of the United 
States who is not indirectly benefited by their effects. 

" Annual grants of our home publications are made to the 
destitute, amounting to some ^50,000; and these have gone 
to working Christians, for circulation in prisons and hospi- 
tals, in sabbath schools and mission schools, in cities and in 
remote and lonely hamlets, to soldiers, and to sailors on our 
inland waters, and in hundreds of outward-bound vessels 
from every corner of the globe. 

" Besides large amounts thus granted for foreign nations, a 
total of $560,000 in money has been granted from the first 
year to the present, to aid the missionaries, at twenty different 
stations in heathen lands, to print for this mission-work certain 
books which the society approves ; and thus 3,750 different 
publications have been issued abroad, including over 500 
volumes in 141 languages. 

" Of the good results of colportage a volume might be 
written, and yet but a small part be told. In 26 years, it 
has done a work equal to that of one man for 4,137 years; 
it has sold 8,550,000 volumes, and granted 2,300,000 ; it has 
made 9,596,000 visits, in more than half of which prayer 
was offered or a personal appeal made ; it has found 1,292,- 
000 Protestant families neglecting evangelical worship, 833,- 
000 Romanist families; 494,000 Protestant families without 



556 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

Bibles, and 800,000 with no other religious book. It has, 
to a good degree, met the wants of a rapidly-advancing popu- 
lation, where no book-stores, schools, or churches existed ; 
where the message of salvation would not otherwise have 
been borne. 

"The amount received and expended, from its commence- 
ment to this time, is over $9,000,000. 

" Among the reasons for its success, we notice the fact 
that the whole j)lji^ii of operation is such as to secure re- 
sponsibihty and efficiency. The foresight and liberality of 
friends have given the society a large and commodious 
building, where, with twenty steam-presses, tens of thousands 
of stereotype plates, and every faciHty for composing, print- 
ing, binding, and storing, its publications reach the number 
of 4,000 books, 30,000 tracts, and 20,000 papers, daily. So 
large and powerful a Christian agency operating upon the 
masses must be an effective force for the improvement of 
national character." * 

The American Seaman's Friend Society is the concentration 
of earnest sympathy for those who "do business in great 
waters." Christian philanthropy finds in seamen an im- 
portant class of men, capable of great excellence, and liable 
to the most destructive vices. Without our consent, they 
will be regarded abroad as representatives of a Christian 
nation. With what propriety, therefore, are the most self- 
sacrificing and devoted efforts made to give them, on land 
and on the sea, the means of grace and Christian culture ! 

This society has been in operation less than half a century, 
and it now has its chaplaincies in almost every part of the 
world. At home and abroad, our seafaring men are cared 
for : our Bethel churches and ships, our " homes " and hos- 
pitals, invite them to the blessings of holy worship and 
Christian hospitality. They are treated not so much as 
sailors as men ; and thousands of them are noble represen- 

* From a paper hy Rev. W. W. Rand. 



DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGION. 557 

tatives of American Christianity, and many become truly 
devoted missionaries in foreign lands. 

Libraries of some 40 or 50 volumes each provide them 
valuable reading on shipboard. " Up to this time, Oct. 25, 
1867, nearly 2,500 of them have been put afloat in the navy 
and merchant service, composed of over 100,000 volumes, 
and accessible to about 115,000 seamen at sea. The system 
is making a revolution in the conduct and character of sea- 
men on shipboard. Up to May 1, 1867, a few of these libra- 
rians had reported 518 hopeful conversions at sea through 
the influence of these books." * 



YOUNG men's christian ASSOCIATIONS.f 

" The origin and progress of Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciations in America must always be cause of thankfulness 
to God. They were adopted from Germany and England ; 
and Providence has kindly aided their permanent establish- 
ment in this Western World. 

"• Who can recall, without a thrill of pleasure, the Samari- 
tan labors of the New-Orleans Association, when, in 1858, a 
fearful epidemic swept the streets of that city as with the 
besom of destruction ? Or who can contemplate, unmoved, 
the organized and fruitful sympathy, which, from its well- 
spring in the bosom of the New- York Association, flowed in 
an abundant and still enduring stream to minister comfort 
to the little ones of Norfolk and Portsmouth, Va., smitten 
orphans by a pitiless pestilence ? Blessed memories are 
there, too, of the firemen's meetings, inaugurated in Philadel- 
phia, — an instrumentality owned of the Master, and there 
and elsewhere made the means of many a soul's salvation. 
Nor can we forget the system of tent-preaching, by which, 
in our larger cities, the poor have had the gospel preached 
unto them. 

* I'rom a paper by Ruv. H. Loomis, D.D. 
t From a paper by Frank W. Ballakd. 



558 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

" No other agency has yet been discovered in which are 
combined, to the same degree, those desirable constituent 
elements, — catholicity, economy, sympathy, originality, pro- 
gressiveness, efficiency, and vitality. 

" The meetings, the rooms, the library, the lectures, and 
the friendships of a well-appointed Christian association are 
calculated to attract and satisfy all the merely temporal 
cravings of a mind and heart not pre-occupied with vice ; 
while many a sorrowing subject of depravity has found in 
them an invitation to repentance, and an antidote to the 
poison of previous evil companionships. Superadd to these 
merely material attractions the exercise of that positive 
religious influence which is professedly the main feature of 
a Christian Association, and the institution is made to assume 
no subordinate position in the moral machinery of the world. 
It becomes at once, and so remains, an indispensable adjunct 
to the Church, and, as thousands of new-born souls will tes- 
tify, a means of grace both owned and blessed of God. 

" The Christian Association, in proportion to its member- 
ship and their activity, becomes a moral police wherever it 
is established ; arresting the vicious in their mad career ; 
preventing much of the sin that promises to ripen into 
crime; removing or diminishing, so far as its influence ex- 
tends, the teeming temptations of city life ; and attracting 
towards itself the confidence and love of those whose rescue 
has thus been wrought. By its well-arranged system of 
practical fraternity, the institution provides employment for 
the unemployed, homes and churches and friends for the 
stranger, nurses and physicians for the sick; and all this 
without other incentive than the consciousness of dischar- 
ging duty, and the hope of winning souls to Christ. 

" The annual conventions invariably concentrate the deep- 
est sympathies of the Christian people in whose cities they 
are held. At Montreal, in June, 1867, more than 500 dele- 
gates, from 106 localities, and representing an equal number 
of associations, held their sessions during several days, amid 



DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE EELIGION. 559 

the solemn surroundings of crowds, — at times numbering 
3,000 souls. And it has become the rule, that revivals of 
religion are the blessed legacies left behind as precious 
souvenirs wherever the conventions have been held. 

"A central organ has been successfully published during 
the past year, called ' The Quarterly,' which, under the 
editorial supervision of the Executive Committee resident at 
New York, has found favor with the associations, and has a 
self-supporting circulation of 2,000 volumes. 

" Several associations have received from liberal friends of 
the cause large sums of money towards erecting permanent 
buildings for their accommodation. In New York, more than 
$250,000 will be invested in a home for the association of 
that city ; the association in Chicago has already erected 
and occupied a splendid structure ; while Washington, Bos- 
ton, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and other cities, will soon be 
enriched by similar noble Christian edifices. 

" Most of the associations are enjoying the presence 
of the Master's spirit ; and their prayer-meetings, Bible- 
classes, monthly meetings, and social gatherings, have usual- 
ly abounded in good results of glory to God. 

'•There are some 250 Young Men's Christian Associations 
in this country, aggregating about 40,000 members, and 
composed of memberships varying from 16 to near 4,000 
souls each. The largest organization in the country, and 
one of the most active, is that of Brooklyn, N.Y., which had, 
in June, 1867, 3,895 members. Among the other important 
and influential societies are those of New York, 1,600 mem- 
bers; Boston, 2,300 ; Philadelphia, 2,500 ; Providence, 1,300; 
Troy, 1,258 ; Chicago, 1,000 ; Cincinnati, 500 ; Baltimore, 
712 ; Harrisburg, 600 ; Washington City, 650 ; Pittsburg, 
526. 

" The power of such an institution as we have here de- 
scribed, in doing the work of Christ among the young men 
of democratic, republican America, and in promoting sterling 
patriotism, can scarcely be over-estimated." 



560 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 



THE GREAT REVIVAL. 

At length there is place for a revival of religion in the 
history of a great nation. The Christian life is no accident- 
al fact, no temporary influence, to be merely a subject of 
v^^onder or ridicule, and then pass out of sight. Religion is 
no mere segment of the great circle of philosophy : it is 
the inner force, the vitalizing power, of all philosophy, — the 
life and exposition of history. A revival of religion is a 
revival of the national life. So far as it extends, the ten- 
dency to insubordination is broken down ; the very propen- 
sities which give to all governments their most serious trouble 
are reduced to control, and finally eradicated ; the reign of 
justice and of love begins, in the individual soul, to give 
strength and force to all right dispositions, growing and en- 
larging perpetually. This is true religion, — a revival of 
the right, the just, and the true. Now, let it extend until it 
subdues, reduces to order, and saves hundreds, thousands, 
throughout our various communities : is this nothing in his- 
tory, nothing to a nation ? 

It was the fall of 1857. There had been a sudden and 
appalling overthrow of the business plans and prosperity of 
the city and country. Various reasons for this revulsion 
w^ere given by political economists; but they were very 
conflicting and unsatisfictory. At length the thought began 
to move among the churches and business-men, that this was 
God arresting the headlong worldly schemes of men, and 
warning them not to set their affections on things on the 
earth. These convictions began to appear in the several 
churches ; and they soon found a rally ing-point and a com- 
mon expression in a noonday prayer-meeting. The room 
was filled ; then another and another. Soon a large church 
was opened ; then others in other parts of the city ; then 
parlors in splendid residences, hotel drawing-rooms, vast 
public halls, and theatres, were converted into prayer-rooms. 

Christian men and women, old people and children, rich 



DEVELOPMENT OP TRUE RELIGION. 561 

men and poor, all gathered daily, sometimes twice in the 
day, reverently to worship God, the great Sovereign of men. 
It was strange. Citizens who had heretofore shown no special 
interest in experimental religion, very rich merchants, high- 
minded lawyers, physicians, and laborers, — some recognized 
as virtuous, deserving, but unconverted, others as grossly prof- 
ligate, — all wept together over their sins, and triumphed to- 
gether, when one after another, to the number of thousands, 
they passed " from darkness to light, and from the power of 
Satan to God." Those who had been suddenly reduced from 
affluence to poverty rejoiced, and thanked God, with tears, 
that they had been brought by discipline to choose a better 
and more enduring treasure. Many who were still prosper- 
ous seemed to hear ringing through their whole being the 
demand, " What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the 
whole world, and lose his own soul?" and body, mind, prop- 
erty, and talents were all freely laid upon the altar of God. 

PERVADING CHRISTIANITY. 

The great revival was no longer local : it was a movement 
— a grand, wide-spreading movement — away from vice and 
perdition towards virtue, holiness, and heaven. All agencies 
seemed to wait its commands, and bow to its control. If 
suggestions, appointments, or direction from some responsi- 
ble head, representing all the Church, were required, God 
had prepared the Young Men's Christian Associations, and 
adapted them to this very necessity. The religious press, 
of course, but the secular press just as submissively, surren- 
dered its best services and most valuable columns to give the 
world due information of this grand movement. Eaij roads 
and steamboats bore the messengers of mercy rapidly from 
place to place, and rendered almost ubiquitous the multitudes 
given up altogether to labor for the salvation of men. The 
great national mail bore the tidings of salvation and the call 
to repentance over the continent ; and tbo telegraph flashed 

71 



562 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

the news of conversions, and words of warning and comfort, 
to dear friends hundreds and thousands of miles away. The 
ships of our harbors bore out, with every sail, young con- 
verts, of various nations and tongues, to tell the glad tidings 
in other lands, and establish centres of prayer and revival 
influences on distant continents and islands. Daily prayer- 
meetings extended from town to town, from city to country, 
from state to state, and from land to land, until they literally 
encircled the globe, and countless multitudes were saved by 
fiiith in Christ. 

How distinctly, now, does this power from God identify 
itself with "the new inspiration" which decided the mind- 
battles ushering in the period of American independence ! 
The life of God in man is soul-libert}^, — is the clearest, full- 
est expression of freedom possible to human apprehension. 

And it is precisely thus that the life of the Church mani- 
fests itself as the life of the nation. Each individual created 
anew in Christ Jesus, each truly Christian family, each evan- 
gelical denomination, with all its enlightening agencies, ap- 
pears wrestling with the vices which destroy men, and throw 
society into disorder ; sustaining virtue and law ; concentrat- 
ing and then diffusing the elements of a high Christian civili- 
zation everywhere ; bearing down all unjust enactments, and 
superseding them by a higher, broader, nobler equity. This 
divine, vitalizing force — the only thing so subtle and irre- 
sistible that it can literally permeate the social and civil 
organism, and master the evils which prey upon the rights 
of men — becomes at once attractive to every truth in the 
political condition, joins it to the grand unity of national 
strength, and thus reveals itself as the vitalizing force and 
organizing power of liberty. It is living justice. Remove 
it, destroy it, and liberty is dead ; extend it through all the 
governments of earth, and the loorld is free. 




^iB[Fdi^[Ki^ra LO &^':<^^[Li 



PERIOD IV. 

EMANCIPATION. 



CHAPTER I. 
AMERICAN SLAVERY. 

" What execrations should the statesman be loaded with, who, pennitting one-half the 
citizens thus to trample on the rights of the other, transforms the one into despots, and 
the other into enemies, — destroying the morals of the one part, and the amor patrice of the 
other ! And can the liberties of a nation be thought secured, when we have removed their 
only firm basis, — a conviction in the minds of the people that their liberties are the gift 
of God 1 Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that jus- 
tice cannot sleep forever. The Almighty has no attribute that can take sides with us in 
such a contest." — Jefferson. 

In another part of this work, we have seen that slavery in 
America was a leo-itimate result of caste in Enixland. The 
distinction between labor and government became usurpa- 
tion and oppression. The idea that certain classes were born 
to serve was the complement of the feeling that wealth and 
high birth were a release from labor. An hereditary nobility 
harmonized with the doctrine of hereditary government and 
liereditary subjection. True, the formal assertion of this doc- 
trine, in its legitimate consequences, was not common in 
England at the time when this deadly evil began to work in 
the colony of Virginia ; but it was vital and practical in the 
customs of society, and it came here in the form of inden- 
tured apprenticeship. It most conveniently adopted from 
the Spaniards the practice of enslaving the helpless Indians ; 
and when, in 1G20, the Dutch landed twenty negroes at 

503 



564 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

Jamestown, and offered them for sale as slaves, it was not 
difficult to find customers. 

The slave-trade, which had been in progress for more than 
four hundred years, was at this time led on by Portugal, and 
became an extended and lucrative traffic by maritime na- 
tions generally. It had no reference to color ; but when a 
few black men were brought from Africa, and exchanged 
for Moorish captives, it was found that they were a strong, 
powerful race of men, and they soon became a coveted 
article of traffic. The African slave-trade thus began, under 
the patronage of Prince Henry HI., son of John I. of Por- 
tugal, in 1418. It received a new impulse from the great 
revival of commercial activity following the discovery by 
Columbus, and the entrance of Africa by the enemies of the 
race. 

MEN ENSLAVED. 

The first great fact which deserves to be mentioned here 
is, that slaves were human beings. In each of these plain, 
muscular bodies was a soul, formed, by the power of God, 
to think and feel, to reason and will, — a soul with a con- 
science, capable of enjoying and suffering, redeemed by the 
blood of Christ, and stamped with immortality. 

Each slave might be taught to fear God and read his holy 
Word, exercise saving faith in Christ, receive forgiveness of 
sins, and be thrilled with the hope of heaven. And the 
grandest fact of his natural being was, that he was free. 
God had made his power of volition a fundamental part of 
him. He had a right to breathe this free air, walk abroad 
when he pleased, work and earn his living, support and 
educate his family, keep around him the dear objects of 
paternal love, and obey the laws of chastity. 

But this cruel love of personal ease and aggrandizement, 
this lust of power, came in, and robbed him of all these 
rights. It bound his body, so that it could not go where his 
interest and duty required j it seized his hands, his feet, his 



AMEEICA2T SLAVERY. 565 

muscles, his brain, his nerves, and said they should all work 
for the benefit of a master. 

And there was no hope. Children's children were doomed, 
down to the latest generation. Their numbers swelled, and 
their value increased. Every additional pound of sugar, 
tobacco, and rice, told the increasing woe of their bondage. 
The vast cotton-fields, and the triumphs of Whitney and 
Arkwright, all rose up to show how utterly hopeless was 
their future. Christians and infidels enslaved men, — thou- 
ands, millions, of men, women, and children, — and made 
laws to protect their villany. Is a greater crime than this 
possible ? 

MIND SUBJUGATED. 

Slave-owners were right in the judgment that the body 
could not be " held to service," and the soul be free. There 
was dangerous power in soul-liberty. God made it to take 
control of brain and muscle, hands and feet. It must be 
suppressed, controlled absolutely, or it would break chains 
asunder like the withs of Samson. It was a crime to 
teach a slave to read. His intellect, expanded, might seize 
with more power the thought of his natural right to free- 
dom ; he might catch in a newspaper a glimpse of the 
condemnation of the tyranny that bound him ; he might 
put on paper some allusions to his personal rights, and the 
rights of his wife and children : he must not learn to read, 
therefore. 

But the limitation of rights could not stop here. Igno- 
rance required by a great system of wrong would not be 
confined to slaves. The common people must not be edu- 
cated. They had no slaves, and might inquire why the few 
who held them were the governors of the land. They might 
expect even to associate with gentlemen. Education must, 
therefore, be the privilege of the few, of the wealthy, of the 
children of slaveholders, their blood-relations, and high-born 
friends. Common schools were dangerous. They would 



566 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

make the poor whites impudent, and difficult to manage at 
the elections. They might originate ideas of liberty that 
would be exceedingly inconvenient to an oligarchy. 

But mental subjection must extend farther than this, or 
the cherished institution would not be entirely safe. Popu- 
lar sentiment must be moulded so as to force humanity 
itself to tolerate this enormous wrong ; nay, to accept it, 
call it right, extol it as the best and purest form of society. 
Slaveholders themselves must not indulge a doubt of their 
right to make " chattels " of human beings ; much less 
might a stranger, a man who had been accustomed to free 
thought and free speech, utter sentiments of condemnation 
in the midst of slavery. He would soon find that he had 
a master. The tyranny of custom and popular sentiment 
could not be restrained for lack of argument. It was learned 
and ingenious; and the violence of the mob would help in 
the last extremity to a summary conclusion and a glorious 
triumph. 

Laws which would allow a slave no will of his own, which 
would subject him in every respect to the will of his master 
which made it a felony to teach him to read, or to believe 
that he had a right to himself or his wife or children, were 
necessary. The will of the people, the popular sentiment, 
must sustain these laws at all hazards, and, whenever the 
most reckless deemed it necessary, deal out summary pun- 
ishment to all advocates of liberty. This was mind sub- 
jugated. 

GOVERNMENT INTHRALLED. 

For a time, it seemed as if the whole United States might 
become slave territory. But the cold and the rocks of the 
North would not allow the negro to become a perpetual slave 
here. State sovereignty was, therefore, the next strong 
hope of Southern political leaders. Slavery must enter 
into every department of government, and absolutely rule 
the State. If an emancipationist should find his way into 



AMEKICAN SLAVERY. 567 

the legislature, he must learn his utter impotence. No 
man could be a ruler, in any controlling sense, who showed 
the least hesitancy with regard to the usurpations of slavery. 

The construction of State sovereignty must be so ex- 
tended and stringent as utterly to exclude the interference 
of the General Government with State despotism. All this 
was easy ; for the few who deemed themselves born to rule 
had very little difficulty in making and interpreting law for 
the multitude, accustomed, from generation to generation, t« 
know their places. 

Slavery must also rule the General Government. It must, 
therefore, dictate candidates, decide the elections, and con- 
trol the administration. It will be almost incredible in 
history, but it is now known to the world, that, in all this, 
it succeeded. For three-quarters of a century, it seemed 
impossible to pass a law in Congress that had the least 
tendency towards emancipation, or the amelioration of the 
condition of the black race ; or to avoid adopting a measure 
which was demanded, to increase the securities and extend 
the power of slavery. Equally hopeless was any attempt to 
bring forward a candidate for the presidency who was not 
known to favor the peculiar institution, or firmly pledged to 
guard its interests. Even the sacred right of petition must 
be frowned down and stamped under foot, lest the ears of 
slaveholders should be reached by a word in behalf of human 
freedom in the South, and the friends of the institution be 
insulted by some intimations of a popular sentiment, some- 
where in the Union, against this " sum of all villanies." This 
was not mere pretence : it was sober, downright earnest- 
ness ; studied, persistent purpose, rising up from the very 
foundations of Southern society, handed down from sire to 
son, and well judged to be an absolute necessity for the 
preservation of slavery. 

When the rapid growth of the free States, and the exten- 
sion of population *Into the North-west, over-balanced the 
South in the councils of the nation, there was only one 



568 THE GKEAT REPUBLIC. 

alternative, — guaranties from the free States, or secession. 
Slavery must rule the nation, or destroy it. 

Nor can we claim that these enormous burdens were 
lightened by the growth of mind, the refinement of man- 
ners, or the patronizing customs, of the South. Neither the 
conceded kindness of a portion of the Southern planters to 
their slaves, nor the power of Southern hospitality, nor the 
skill and courtesy of leading politicians, could ever mean 
liberty to the people, black or white, South or North ; nor 
imply the right of free principles to a controlling influence 
in the government. 

CIVILIZATION FETTERED. 

The great foundations of civilization are laid in con- 
science, in an accurate sense of justice ; but slavery obliter- 
ates the broadest distinctions between right and wrong, and 
reconciles men to robbery. It crushes the feeling of per- 
sonal rights upon the part of the slave, and brings the 
slave-owner to consent to a life of dishonesty. It makes 
licentiousness, with its brood of vices, so convenient and 
irresponsible as to demoralize a whole people under shield 
of popular social license. And this must produce a low 
standard of civilization. It ought not to be surprising to 
find in a country so polluted a few living in splendor, but 
the many in squalid hovels ; a few in brilliant costume, but 
the multitude in rags ; a few having the appearance of edu- 
cated softness and polished lassitude, while the great num- 
bers, white or colored, show the low breeding and animali- 
zation of menials, scorned and contemned whether they 
do right or wrong, vulgar and filthy in word and appear- 
ance. 

Civilization seeks to increase the productiveness of the 
soil and all the common blessings of life ; but slavery de- 
mands a large area of land, runs over it slightly, impover- 
ishes, and abandons it. It makes labor dishonorable, and, for 
its white population, substitutes hunting, fishing, idleness, 



AMERICAN SLAVERY. 569 

and general dissipation. There will hence be a few palatial 
residences with costly furniture and sumptuous tables, amid 
multitudes of huts with broken chairs, benches, beds of straw, 
and the coarsest food. 

Civilization struggles to educate ; but slavery, as we have 
seen, denies education to the slave and to the masses of the 
poor whites. Hence vast majorities of the people will not 
be able to read or write ; will be shut out of the great world 
of letters, and consigned to a night of virtual barbarism. To 
avoid dano-er from liberalizing; tendencies, school-books must 
be subjected to a narrow censorship, and all sentiments 
of personal freedom for the millions thoroughly expurgated. 
Sons and daug-hters of the rulinsj; class must be sent abroad 
to be educated ; or teachers must be imported, and their 
instincts of humanity suppressed. 

Civilization requires a pure, experimental Christianity and 
a true literature; but slavery allows neither. 



THE PRESS AND THE PULPIT BOUND. 

When the great crisis came, how long a time had elapsed 
since a man could safely publish a paper, or circulate tracts 
and volumes, which, with outspoken honesty and thorough- 
ness, S3^mpathized with the slave, and advocated his right to 
freedom ! Nothing; could be more inevitable in th^ slave 
States than the subjection of the press to the imperious 
dictation of the system. And just as inevitable was the 
submission of the party press in the free States, if the votes 
of this domineering interest were to be won for the success 
of candidates. No political party whose periodical press ad- 
vocated emancipation, immediate or gradual, could hope for 
this vote, or had the remotest chance of success. 

Nothing can be more vital to liberty than the independ- 
ence of the pulpit ; but no minister of Christ could preach 
in a land of slavery, freed from the shackles of popular 
opinion, nor at all, unless it was known that he would com- 

72 



570 THE GREAT REPUBLIC, 

pel the great law of love to harmonize with bonds and coer- 
cion. 

This is not all. The national pulpit must either denounce 
or tolerate robbery : it must either bear full and decided 
testimony against "man-stealing" and its mildest as Avell as 
its most brutal sequences, or it must subordinate its teach- 
ing to the great dominant idea of unity, and smother con- 
science in sympathy for slaveholding misfortunes. And thus 
it was. When we thought and felt that every thing must 
bow to the one sentiment of confraternity, we preached care- 
fully, or not at all, the great common rights of manhood 
and the fearful crimes of slavery. 

All this, let it be observed, in a land of liberty, — the 
land of the great Declaration. And, thus far, this power 
had been mightier than the power of foreign oppression. 
Against that we rose in the strength of our manhood, and 
hurled it to the ground ; but to this we bowed, until its 
lordly dictations and insulting menaces became natural and 
tolerable, and until we had actually manufactured an entire 
department of law and logic and gospel and etiquette to 
accommodate and defend it. 

Thus the slave-power grew and smiled, and preached and 
prayed, and raved and swore, until the cup of its iniquity 
was full ; and this is where the moral struggle that immedi- 
ately preceded the war of emancipation found us. 



CHAPTER II. 
THE GKEAT MORAL CONS^LICT. 

" After-ages will moralize on the hallucination under which an exceptional and transi- 
tional state of things, marking the last phase in the existence of an old feudal monarchy, 
has been regarded and confidentially propagated as the normal and final state of man." — 

GOLDWIN SiMITH. 

Could this state of American subjection to a foreign idea 
last forever? Was it possible that the domination of the 
slave-power would be final in the Great Republic, and the 
purposes of freedom, to which this splendid country was 
so early consecrated, utterly overthrown ? If the compara- 
tive skill, the daring and persistent purpose, of men could 
decide it, the answer would be clearly. Yes. If the wrong 
could hold its conquests by power, by bold and unscrupulous 
talent trained in the art of politics for many long 3'ears; 
if astute scheming upon the part of the few could control 
the many, — there could be no question: we were des- 
tined to be a great nation of usurpers and despots ; to live 
and rankle in corruption, and die under the visitations of 
God, remembered but to be despised and execrated wherever 
history should record our name. But if truth and right were 
imperishable, if true religion was in the conflict, if God would 
decide the question, then the answer was, No. 

But we must not forget that the plans of God develop 
slowly ; that they include a vast sweep of redeeming agen- 
cies, dealing with wrongs deeply rooted, and coming down 
from long-distant ages. Venerable in antiquity and hoary 
in crime, slavery had only yielded in one country, to reveal 
its strength in another; and here, in this land of liberty, it 

671 



572 THE GEEAT KEPUBLIC. 

gathered its power for its last and desperate conflict with 
the rights of man. It may not, therefore, be deemed strange, 
that, upon the part of the right, the preparations for the 
grandest and most appalling battle of all time should be 
long, profound, and finally irresistible. 

In 1786, Washington said, "I never mean, unless some 
particular circumstances should compel me to it, to possess 
another slave by purchase ; it being among the first wishes 
of my heart to see some plan adopted by which slavery in 
this country may be abolished by law." 

Jefferson, writing from Paris in 1788, said, "We must 
wait with patience the workings of an overruling Provi- 
dence, and hope that that is preparing the deliverance of 
these our suffering brethren. When the measure of their 
tears shall be full, when their tears shall involve heaven 
itself in darkness, doubtless a God of justice will awaken to 
their distress, and by diffusing light and liberty among their 
oppressors, or at length by his exterminating thunder, mani- 
fest his attention to things of this world, and show that they 
are not left to the guidance of blind fatality." 

John Jay, in 1780, said, "An excellent law might be made 
out of the Pennsylvania one, for the gradual abolition of 
slavery. Till America comes into this measure, her prayers 
to Heaven will be impious. This is a strong expression ; but 
it is just. I believe God governs the world ; and I believe 
it to be a maxim in his as in our court, that those who ask 
for equity should grant it." 

Monroe, before the Virginia Convention, said, "We have 
found that this evil has preyed upon the very vitals of the 
Union, and has been prejudicial to all the States in which it 
has existed." 

Henry Laurens of South Carolina wrote to his son, Aug. 
14, 1776, "You know, my son, I abhor slavery. I was born 
in a country where slavery had been established by British 
kings and parliaments, as well as by the laws of that coun- 
try, ages before my existence. I found the Christian reli- 



THE GREAT MORAL CONFLICT. 573 

gion and slavery growing together under the same authority 
and cultivation. I, nevertheless, disliked it. In former days, 
there was no combating the prejudices of men, supported 
by interest. The day, I hope, is approaching, when, from 
principles of gratitude, as well as justice, every man will 
strive to be foremost in showing his readiness to comply 
with the golden rule." 

Patrick Henry said, " Slavery is detested ; we feel its fatal 
effects; we deplore it with all the pity of humanity. It 
would rejoice my very soul to know that every one of my 
fellow-beings was emancipated. I believe the time will come 
when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamen- 
table evil." 

These are only specimens of the honest and prophetic 
announcements of our great men, from the foundations of 
our government; and they show conclusively that the in- 
stitution of slavery was as anti-American as it was anti- 
Christian. 

Against these high inspirations of wisdom, and all the warn- 
ings of history in this Eepublic, for near a century, slavery 
advanced until it had reached the climax of insolence and 
oppression, which, in the preceding chapter, we traced up to 
our own period. Surely it was time for " the uprising of a 
great people." 

CHRISTIANITY REVOLTS. 

One thing was indestructible. The law of Jesus Christ, 
" All thino-s whatsoever ve would that men should do to 
you, do ye even so to them," was not made to be annihilated 
by human power, however proud and defiant it might be- 
come. " Thou slialt love thy neighbor as thyself" was the 
law of Christian life, written, not upon tables of stone, but 
upon the hearts of the regenerate of all time and all lands, 
and would ultimately gain the mastery over proud, oppres- 
sive selfishness. Accordingly, a very bold and formidable 
demonstration against slavery came from religious' justice, 



574 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

and love for the race. We do not claim that it was at first 
pure, unmixed Christianity. In its bursts of indignation, it 
not unfrequently revealed an unchristian temper, and a dis- 
position to prompt and summary justice not in harmony with 
the laws and plans of God ; and when it was, without due 
consideration, claimed that the Holy Bible justified slavery, 
and the solid conservatism of the churches rose up in the 
way of radical reformers, a few denounced the Bible and the 
churches. But this rashness was gradually counteracted. 
Sound exegesis soon rescued the Bible from the undeserved 
reproach of sanctioning slavery ; and members of the churches, 
in numbers constantly increasing, showed that their love of 
justice was superior to all prescriptive usages. The great 
principles of righteousness, utterly denying the right of 
property in man, were found to have their very strongest 
security and expression in divine revelation and in the fun- 
damental doctrines of the Church. 

Agitation was fearful to the timid, and most honestly dis- 
couraged by a very strong conservatism in the Church and 
Nation. It seemed likely to sweep away the very founda- 
tions of public order, and result in the wildest anarchy. No 
doubt, denunciation sometimes assumed a bitterness, and 
measures of reform a recklessness, which few rightrminded 
men would now attempt to justify; but, on the other hand, 
the cool complacency, the endless delays, of conservatism, 
the apologies for slavery, and, finally, the studied attempts 
to vindicate it in the face of its vile corruptions and atroci- 
ties, were very provoking. 

In the mean time, it began to appear that God was in the 
midst of the storm ; that he suffered, if he did not actually 
order, this terrific agitation to break up the reign of stupid- 
ity and death. It was, in fact, the trump of resurrection to 
the slumbering justice of the Church and the Nation. There 
was really no danger. 

Of course, as suppression began to appear hopeless, the 
principles of the conflict began to release themselves; and a 



THE GREAT MORAL CONFLICT. 575 

potent Providence compelled men to take sides in the great 
battle, the moral grandeur of which few men could distinctly 
see, none could comprehend. Conservative Christians and 
churches in the North began to reveal a strength of anti- 
slavery principle which had been hardly suspected. 

In the South, members of the churches, and the ministry, 
seemed shut up to a fatal blindness. For many years, they 
generally conceded the wrong of the system ; but they felt 
the power of that terrorism which was everywhere, and 
shrank from the mission of " liberty to the captives," upon 
which they were sent by their great Master. They excused 
the wrong, and at length placed themselves at the head of its 
violent defenders. Thus it must be mournfully confessed that 
Southern churches committed a crime for which the atone- 
ment required has been bloody, protracted, and terrible. 
When will the hour of foro-iveness come ? Let us mingi-le 
our tears of penitence with theirs. We have been too deep- 
ly involved in their guilt to avoid a frightful participation 
in the demand for retribution ; and it may be feared that we 
have not yet exhausted the cup of our merited sorrow. 

But, all this time, true Christianity never wavered. Its 
great historic truth of the brotherhood of the race came 
out more and more distinctly ; and, even from the lips of 
" unreasonable men," it was a grand gospel, the very evan- 
gel of God to the oppressed American mind. 

Ardent and perhaps not very. well regulated men in the 
Church took it up, and rang it through the land, until con- 
servatism was startled, said it was perverted, and made to 
mean " another gospel ; " then affirmed that it was an old 
truth, and that, in obedience to its behest, the Church had 
always cared most wisely for both master and slave. But 
at length great and grave conservative men began to speak 
with authorit}^ to the men who held human bodies and souls 
in thraldom, and say, " Let the oppressed go free," so irre- 
sistibly did the right work its way to the surface, and, amid 
the roar of battle, compel the people to listen to its procla- 
mation. 



576 - THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

True, schism rent church organizations here and there ; 
secession spurned what it thought an ecclesiastical monster, 
and fled away, to be alone, or form new combinations, which 
would give voice to justice in the name of God. 

Then slavery reached out its arm to grasp more power, 
and dominate over more millions ; and the Church came sud- 
denly up to the question, Would she submit to these new 
aggressions, or risk her threatened losses ? This was the first 
great public test which indicated that the age of compro- 
mises was worn out and must soon be laid aside. And the 
Church endured the trial. Challeno;ed to show her submis- 
sion and her shame, by accepting the advance of the slave- 
power Northward, or be torn asunder and go out of the way, 
she dug down after her old principles, and found them sound 
and bright as ever. She threw herself upon the arm of God, 
and dared to do right. The crash came ; and one after 
another of the great denominations received the blows of 
the tyrant, looked mournfully upon their severed members, 
and, bowing reverently before God, found that their strength 
was in justice. 

In the land of the slave there were found souls strong 
enough to endure the trial, and, in the face of the vilest 
persecution, deny the right of property in man. Faith in 
God, and the ultimate triumph of the right, brought up from 
the South to the throne of grace many fervent prayers, and 
into the ranks of God's liberating army many strong, brave 
men. Loyalty, first to the truth, and then to the govern- 
ment, cost something there ; and its day of recognition and 
honor before earth and heaven was sure to come. 

HUMANITY PLEADS. 

The first great mission of truth in this grand upheaval 
was to show the wrong of the slave-system by the sufferings 
of its victims. The fair exterior of this pagan temple was 
always to be seen. The worshippers at its shrine were proud 
of it. 



THE GREAT MORAL CONFLICT. 577 

See the soft luxuriance of its petted domestics, their com- 
fortable and even splendid costumes, their sumptuous, fair, 
and boasted indolence ! See the fond attachment of these 
house-servant-^ to their master and mistress, the devoted 
love between the children of fortune and the enslaved 
children of slaves ! See liow reluctant they are to leave their 
masters ! — how they beg not to be sold away from the home 
of their childhood ! Most of all, see those multiplied thou- 
sands of converted, praying slave Christians ! — how they 
sing and jump and shout in exultant joy, in despite of their 
bonds ! And see how comfortable we are while these black 
people do our bidding, toil for us, and surround us with lux- 
urious elegance ! Is it not a beautiful system, a glorious 
structure ? 

But the age had become inquisitive. Groans and sighs 
were heard faintly from the inside of this temple. It was 
getting old ; and openings here and there let in the light, 
and revealed miserable objects to the eyes of strangers ; and 
men, persistent, — impertinent if you will, — demanded to 
know what was done inside. 

Scores, hundreds, fled away, guided by the north star ; 
and they told horrid tales, and showed wounds fresh and 
bleeding, and scars deep and old. A wail came up from the 
rice-swamps, and the world heard it. The baying of blood- 
hounds, and the screech of lacerated victims, came from the 
dark woods and bloody streams. What did it all mean ? 
Was this Christian slavery ? — a loving, voluntary, coveted, 
civilized bondage ? The world absolutel}^ would know. 

Timid honesty, from the heart of the slave empire rising 
up in such formidable proportions amid the institutions of 
republican liberty, whispered explanations of these wounds 
and scars, these wailings and tears, — these men and women 
were not willing slaves ; in large numbers they had to be 
scourged to their task ; and the brooding horrors of fear 
alone could keep them in bondage ; their occasional joy, 
and their affectionate gratitude, told that they were human, 



73 



578 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

if they were "chattels," and could respond to kind treat- 
ment ; that they could be Christians by the grace of God, 
if they were denied the privilege of reading the word of 
God. But nothing in all this had prevented, or could pre- 
vent, the absolute demand for force. Why did not those ser- 
vants go where they pleased ? work where they could make 
honest bargains and obtain honest wages ? Why could not 
they be the judges as to whether they would learn to read, 
or were well used ? and why could they not, in the absence 
of white witnesses, come into court, testify to the violence 
inflicted upon them, and receive justice ? No : the truth 
must come out, and go abroad the world over, — it was a 
system of cruel coercion. Travellers would tell it; poets 
would echo its wail; and the pen would turn away from 
fiction, and write truth, stranger, wilder, more terrible, than 
fiction. 

And what was to be the response to all this ? From 
Christianity, as we have seen, clear, strong, unequivocal con- 
demnation, with a kind but peremptory demand for free- 
dom. But this condemnation and demand were unheeded ; 
and " the sighing of the poor and the needy " went on. 
Then pity began to weep and to plead. Christian humanity 
entreated, " Let these poor people change their residences and 
employers if they desire it. Let them learn to read God's 
holy word. They long to know for themselves what con- 
solation it has for mourning captives and for penitent sin- 
ners : let them read it." Even natural humanity said, " Don't 
strike again ! See how the blood gushes, how the flesh 
quivers ! Don't strike again ; don't tear that infant from its 
mother's arms ; don't sell these poor people away fi'om their 
little ones, and chain them together like felons, and drive 
them off into the swamps, — husbands, wives, and children, 
— ftir and forever away from each other," 

There was no possibility of suppressing this cry of hu- 
manity : it became increasingly tender and earnest ; it 
swelled louder and louder its notes of plaintive sorrow ; its 



THE GREAT MORAL CONFLICT. 579 

circle of prayer and weeping spread wider and wider. Never 
before were such pleadings addressed to God or man ; never 
was the ear of man so utterly deaf, never the ear of God so 
quick and listening. 

JUSTICE DENOUNCES. 

There was another voice for the ear of oppression, — a 
deeper, sterner, more commanding voice. For what purpose 
was it said, "Rob not the poor, because he is poor; neither 
oppress the afflicted in the gate : for the Lord will plead 
their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them " ? 
Surely this was not simply an announcement for the people 
then to hear and forget. It must have been a great fact for 
all time, an inevitable law which God would certainly exe- 
cute in his righteous wisdom everywhere. Then it spake in 
tones of authority to these masters as well as to oppressors 
of old, '' Eob not that poor man ; I am his witness, and I am 
your omniscient Judge : I will be his advocate. You have 
cruelly beaten him to get more labor out of him for yourself, 
and you give him no wages. But you have committed a 
higher crime than this : you have robbed him of himself, and 
made him your slave. The day of retribution is coming." 
Oh, this is dreadful ! But listen again : " Go to now, ye rich 
men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon 
you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are 
moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered ; and the rust 
of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your 
flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for 
the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who have 
reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, 
crietli ; and the cries of them which have reaped are en- 
tered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth." Read thought- 
fully one word more : " Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry 
of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be 
heard." 

Thus did justice thunder in the ears of slaveholders their 



580 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

crime and their impending calamities. They might see with 
their own eyes the beginnings of retribution. There were, 
in vast extent, all desolate and valueless, the fields which 
had been reaped by those who had been denied their wages. 
There were the figures of the census, showing the border 
slave States cursed by some strange power, and, as compared 
with the free States by their side, doomed to inferiority ; 
and, more frightful still, these figures showed the alarming 
relative increase of the black over the white population. 
What could that mean ? 

Then there were prophets in these latter days. Grave, 
devout old negroes were on their knees night and day in 
prayer. They returned from their interviews with God, 
alarmed for the fate of their masters. Perhaps no intelligi- 
ble words w^ere spoken ; but the deep sigh and the ominous 
shake of the head meant justice. Many poor black men 
were listeners, and understood the still small voice when 
it said, " The cries of them which have reaped are entered 
into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth." How quick and 
prompt is that subtle public sense which blanches the faces 
of oppressors when the word " insurrection " is whispered ! 
The quakings of fear when the armless hand appears writing 
on the wall are the beginnings of justice. 

Just before the storm broke, justice had a thousand 
tongues. The warnings came from violent and fanatical 
men, from great and good men, from political economists, 
from sober judges, from profound statesmen. Men every- 
where could feel it. There was sorrow in the air. There 
were signs of wrath in the clear sky as well as in the gather- 
ing storm-cloud. Great and wise men of other lands gave 
the alarm. They told us, in books, in periodicals, in mes- 
sages of kindness from across the sea, that we were nearing 
the fatal gulf. Flippant jests and loud bravado did but in- 
crease the awful apprehensions which came to the souls of 
men from this quickened sense of God's all-pervading jus- 
tice. 



THE GREAT MORAL CONFLICT. 581 



POLITICAL PARTIES TEMPORIZE. 



We must now return to the human side of this threaten- 
ing controversy. Men would not hear. Party spirit and 
sectional feeling rose high. Many shrewd men had their 
theories of relief and safety. Politicians sternly opposite 
to each other indicated a purpose to rule the storm. Here 
and there were men who said, " Be just, do the right, and God 
will avert our perils : " but the men strongest before the peo- 
ple said, "We must make concessions;" meaning, chiefly, there 
is no other way to majorities. 

There had been other storms and threatened destruction 
in other days ; and, in the midst of one of these storms, there 
had been a strong, bold attempt to fix a line between free- 
dom and slavery in this Republic, as though two utterly in- 
compatible and fiercely hostile institutions could permanently 
agree to rule a great nation. Slavery was uneasy within its 
limits. It could not be restricted. It must have more ter- 
ritory, or die. An empire had been added to its domain in 
Texas ; but this was not enough. Its covetous eyes were 
fixed upon the great North-west. There, above the line of 
the Missouri Compromise, must ultimately lie the balance 
of power in the nation ; and it must be gradually won. 
Political schemers in the North would yield this territory, 
enough for a State at a time, for votes to secure the success 
of a party. And quietly the proposition came before Con- 
gress to make a new State of enormous size, much of it 
above the line, and take up the line, leaving it open for the 
introduction of slavery. It was not a question to be settled 
by reason nor by history. The one party must do it, or fail. 
The other party must do it, or fail. The nation must do it, 
or the South would secede. 

Then the cry of danger came up from the American Sen- 
ate and House of Representatives. A few faithful men were 
there who did not fear the imperious edicts of the slave- 
power, nor the threat of breaking up the government, nor 



582 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

the bludgeon, the bowie-knife, or the pistol. They feared 
God, and reverenced justice. They sent out their notes of 
alarm, and the people were startled. Could it be possible 
that slavery entertained the thought of moving northward ? 
There was the line, the great compromise line, that could not 
be taken up nor passed over. The South had pleaded com- 
promises from the days of the Constitutional Conven- 
tion, and they surely would respect the Missouri Compro- 
mise. No : they would not. It was against the right to 
take slavery wherever the masters emigrated, and it must 
come up. 

The outcry from Northern freemen was a little stronger 
and more threatening-than usual. Something; must be con- 
ceded ; and, for the sake of getting rid of the line, the terri- 
tory of the proposed State should be cut in two, and one of 
the new States might be free if the people insisted. It was 
done, and the line was destroyed. Henceforth it was an 
open question. The people were sovereign, and they could 
decide for themselves whether their new States should be 
free or slave. This was plausible. The South had no doubt 
but this doctrine of popular sovereignty could be managed 
so that Kansas would be certainly a slave State, and Nebras- 
ka probably. 

In the North, and especially in New England, a new idea 
seemed to come up, move about, and gather power : " If it is 
to be a question of enterprise and majorities, we will try it. 
Let the compromise line go." For once, " the wise " had been 
" taken in their own craftiijess." The race was a hard one ; 
but the free spirit was roused, and it triumphed. If the doc- 
trine of the people's sovereignty was fairly adhered to, Kan- 
sas would be a free State. But no thanks to political parties. 
This was the people. Parties truckled and bargained as 
aforetime ; but they were gradually losing their hold of the 
popular will. The freemen of the North began to feel that 
their liberties were endangered, and to show strong symp- 
toms of a purpose to take the direction of afiairs into their 



THE GREAT MORAL CONFLICT. 583 

own hands. They could not control the nominations ; but 
they could emigrate and vote. They did ; and this was the 
movement from which the slave-power in America received 
its first significant check. 



THE STRAIN AND THE RECOIL. 

To the Southern mind, this rapid increase of Northern 
freemen, and hence the use that could be made of " popular 
sovereignty," was a revelation. It showed clearly that the 
control of the government by the ballot was no longer se- 
cure. As the people began to organize, the dominant major- 
ity drew closer to the slave-power ; and the administration 
showed a strong purpose to add patronage to party tactics 
against the people, now evidently determined to commence 
a new struggle for liberty. The representatives of free 
principles won a decided majority in Kansas. Slavery, fol- 
lowing its instincts, tried first brute force ; but John Brown, 
and other brave spirits on the border, showed this to be 
dangerous, and, in that form, certainly hopeless. The 
people, in what they deemed a legitimate way, organized 
a provisional State government, and, without slavery, ap- 
plied for admission into the Union. The advocates of 
slavery organized, adopted a proslavery constitution, and 
appealed to Congress. The fearful crisis thus brought on 
is, for the present, sufficiently known. Slavery, with all the 
powder of government patronage, undertook the desperate 
task of forcing a slave constitution and government on to 
the people of a free, inchoate State, against the expressed 
will of a majority of its people. This w^as an open repu- 
diation of the doctrine of popular sovereignty : it was 
more, — it was, by fair construction, treason against the 
fundamental principles of the Republic. The issue was 
joined between the parties of freedom and slavery ; and the 
distinguished Mr. Douglas of Illinois ultimately refused to 
go with his party against his own doctrine of " popular sov- 



584 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

ereignty." But he joined issue with Abraham Lincohi, who 
said, " I believe this government cannot permanently endure 
half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be 
dissolved ; I do not expect the house to fall : but 1 do expect 
that it will cease to be divided. Either the opponents of 
slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it 
where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in 
the course of ultimate extinction ; or its advocates will push 
it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, 
old as well as new. North as well as South." Mr. Seward 
made his famous announcement concerning this contest 
in these words: "It is an irrepressible conflict between 
opposing and enduring forces ; and it means that the 
United States must and will, sooner or later, become 
either entirely a slaveholding nation, or entirely a free- 
labor nation." 

Henceforth, therefore, there would be no attempt to con- 
ceal the aggressions of the slave-power ; and the advocates of 
freedom must gather to the battle, and conquer, or be utterly 
overthrown. 

Contrary to the indignant rhetoric of Mr, Webster, in 
which he asserted the impossibility of such an event, slavery 
was formally legalized in the vast Territory of New Mexico, 
and, beyond a doubt, as the result of dictation from Wash- 
ington. 

Under the leadership of Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, the 
Senate of the United States was to be tested, and the ad- 
vanced doctrines of the slave-power were formally indorsed. 
A series of resolutions, all for this one purpose, included the 
following : " Resolved, That negro slavery, as it exists in fif- 
teen States of this Union, composes an important portion of 
their domestic institutions, inherited from their ancestors, 
and existing at the adoption of the Constitution, by which 
it is recognized as an important element in the apportion- 
ment of powers among the States ; and that no change of 
opinion or feeling on the part of the non-slaveholding States 



THE GREAT MORAL CON-FLICT. 585 

of the Union, in relation to this institution, can justify them 
or their citizens in open or covert attacks thereon, with a 
view to its overthrow ; and that all such attacks are in man- 
ifest violation of the mutual and solemn pledge to protect 
and defend each other given by the States respectively on 
entering into the compact which formed the Union ; and 
are a manifest breach of faith, and a violation of the most 
.solemn obligations." 

Mr. Harlan of Iowa moved to amend this defiant resolu- 
tion by the following : '•' But the free discussion of the mo- 
rality and expediency of slavery should never be interfered 
with by the laws of any State or of the United States ; and 
the freedom of speech and of the press on this and every 
other subject of domestic and national policy should be 
maintained inviolate in all the States," This amendment 
\vas promptly voted down, and the original resolution was 
adopted. The vote stood twenty-five yeas, and thirty-six 
nays. Another of these famous resolutions read, " Resolved, 
That neither Congress nor a territorial legislature, whether 
by direct legislation, or legislation of an indirect and un- 
friendly character, possesses power to annul or impair the 
constitutional right of any citizen of the United States to take 
his slave-property into the common Territories, and there 
hold and enjoy the same while the territorial condition re- 
mains." This was adopted by thirty-five yeas to twenty-one 
nays. Thus did the Southern oligarchy set up the claim, that 
slavery was the normal state of all our vast Territories ; and 
that, if they became free, it must be by the success of the 
free voters in a struggle against an institution already estab- 
lished, and fortified by custom and law. If this were true, 
then, in reality, the United States had ceased to be a gov- 
eriiment and nation of freedom, and existed simply for the 
purposes and in the spirit of oppression. 

Another resolution declared, that "all acts of individuals 
or of State legislatures to defeat the purposes or nullify the 



586 THE GEE AT KEPUBLIC. 

requirements of the fugitive-slave law, and the laws made 
in pursuance of it, are hostile in character, subversive of the 
Constitution, and revolutionary in their effect." Thus the 
free citizens of the free States were to be firmly held to 
the obligation to arrest, and forcibly return to bondage, all 
struggling, panting slaves who had reached their territory. 
One other step in advance was to be demanded ; but that 
was deferred for consideration in the Democratic National 
Convention, which met in Charleston, S.C, on the 2od of 
April, 18G0.* This was a most important meeting. It was 
to be settled whether Northern men would endure a fur- 
ther strain for the sake of the oligarchy. The resolutions 
proposed re-affirmed the right of slaveholders to take their 
slave - property into the Territories, and there hold it; 
but, in addition, they asserted the duty of the government 
to protect thesn in this right. This was the last step in 
advance now proposed by the slave-power ; but it was one 
step too far. Many distinguished men felt that they had 
long enough submitted to the domination of a power that 
they really abhorred. They were now asked to commit 
the whole United-States Government to stand up with any 
number, however small, and, by force, enable them to 
establish slavery in any Territory against the will of a 
majority of the people ; and this demand was argued in 
a way to extend tlie duty of protection into the free States 
and to the slave-trade. To this they could not, would not, 
consent. The Southern delegates, declining all attempts at 
compromise, withdrew, organized apart, and adjourned. The 
majority also adjourned without making a nomination. 
The rest is known. Our readers now understand what we 
mean by the strain and the recoil. The free spirit of the 
North had been so long crushed by the bony hand of this 
inexorable tyranny, that, in very agony, it writhed out of 
its grasp. 

* The American Conflict, by Horace Greeley, p. 309, et seq. 



THE GB.EAT MORAL CONFLICT. 587 

ANOTHER GRAND CRISIS IN HISTORY. 

As, before the great Revolution, the gathered power of free- 
dom had reached a point at which it must assert itself, — 
a period in history in which the right of foreign domination 
must be resisted by force, or become absolute and perpetual ; 
so now it began to appear, that, for the questions of power 
between freedom and slavery, the hour of decision was at 
hand. Despotism had become defiant, and would brook no 
control. It had thrown off all disguise, and openly demand- 
ed simple, absolute, unconditional submission. On the other 
hand, the rights of liberty could no longer be ignored. They 
had risen calmly and slowly to a position of firmness and 
self-respect, which began to say to the slave-power, " Thus far, 
and no fixrther." The time had come in which the question 
could not be settled by threats nor by argument. The South 
must now take by force what it had so imperiously de- 
manded, or own that the day of its insolent dictation had 
passed. The North must prepare to resist, even to death, 
the assaults which would soon be made, or own its subjection 
to this imperious despotism. 

There would, it was true, be one more appeal to the bal- 
lot ; but this, so far as the slave-power was concerned, was 
merely nominal. Simply to gain time, they named their 
candidate, but took measures which they were perfectly 
aware would result in his defeat. Old party lines were an- 
nihilated ; and, from the chaos, two, only two, grand parties 
could be seen distinctly revealing their outlines, — one the 
party of freedom and loyalty, the other of slavery and re- 
bellion. 

Men became grave and solemn under the power of these 
momentous events. Not America alone, but the world, was 
interested. Liberty could not falter and die here for this 
continent merely. Slavery could not now complete its usur- 
pations and consolidate its power for America only. Clear- 
sighted philanthropists in England and on the continent of 



588 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

Europe knew that we were making history, not for ourselves 
alone, but for the race. Hence the grand divisions of men 
which were forming here, promptly extended themselves 
around the globe. Freedom and oppression revealed their 
indissoluble unities, and prepared for the battle. 

One question only remained to be settled : Would the 
representatives of liberty in the United States be firm? 
would they receive calmly the menaces of destruction to 
their cherished government, and of cruel, bloody war, and 
move steadily on to the clear, final announcement of the 
great decision ? Another grand crisis of history had come. 

The crisis had passed. Abraham Lincoln was elected Pres- 
ident of the United States. The clock of ages struck, and 
the human race moved into the opening period of a new 
dispensation. 




liSflKieiiSiii Cif SUMS k^B WilKilQlKlS. 



. CHAPTER III. 
THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 

" Mr. President, — I have heard with pain and regret a confirmation of the remark 
I made, that the sentiment of disnnion has become familiar. I hope it is confined to 
South Carolina. I do not regard as my duty what the honorable senator seems to regard 
as his. If Kentucky to-morrow unfurls the banner of resistance, I never will fight under 
that banner. I owe a parnmount allegiance to the whole Union, a subordinate one to ray 
own State." — Henry Clay. 

From the final public decision of the freemen of the 
North to resist at any cost the aggressions of slavery, to 
the bloody attack of the rebels upon American soldiers, the 
time was brief But a few momentous events must occur, 
and these were hastened by the impatience of Southern 
leaders. 

This would seem to have been the time for sob^r reflec- 
tion ; for broad, statesmanlike views of the true reasons for 
our national greatness. It would surely have been wise to 
have carefully considered the distinctive influence of free- 
dom in making us a nation ; the direct antagonism of slavery 
to republican liberty; the evident favor of Providence, shown 
in the rapid, powerful development of free principles ; the 
deep-seated aversion of the civilized world to the institution 
of slavery ; the improbability that rebellion, however power- 
ful, could succeed against national authority and resources ; 
the fearful earn; :;e of civil war : the wail of sorrow that must 
come up from our happy homes ; the track of desolation over 
the fields of blood ; the sad spectacle before the world of 
destructive violence in the heart of the Great Republic. 
Beyond a doubt, reasonings upon these graver themes were 
suppressed. Southern men could not think their own 



590 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

thoughts, nor utter their true sentiments. When the first 
overt acts of treason were perpetrated, a large majority of 
the people were opposed to the movement. If they could 
have been organized, they might have triumphed over their 
intolerant, aspiring leaders ; but, as Southern society was 
constituted, this was impossible. The large majorities were 
used to being governed ; and the resistance of sound wisdom 
was soon overwhelmed by the surges of passion. The rebel 
press and the leaders of public sentiment ordered patriotism 
and tearful love of the national Union and the old flag to be 
silent ; and it was silent ! 

SECESSION. 

'The historian of the Southern Confederacy has placed on 
record the contempt for freemen of the North, and the 
self-complacency of the South, which had been cultivated 
and diffused everywhere for three-quarters of a century, and 
which ought to be mentioned as the first grand error that 
made secession possible. " The intolerance of the Puritans, 
the painful thrift of the Northern colonists, their external 
forms of piety, their jaundiced legislation, their convenient 
morals, their lack of the sentimentalism which makes up the 
half of modern civilization, and their unremitting hunt after 
selfish aggrandizement, are traits of character which are 
yet visible in their descendants. On the other hand, the col- 
onists of Virginia and the Carolinas were, from the first, 
distinguished for their polite manners, their fine sentiments, 
their attachment to a sort of feudal life, their landed gen- 
tly, their love of field-sports and dangerous adventures, and 
the prodigal, improvident aristocracy that dispensed its stores 
in constant rounds of hospitality and gayety." " Slavery es- 
tablished in the South a peculiar and noble type of civiliza- 
tion." "The civilization of the North was coarse and 
materialistic : that of the South was scant of shows, but 
highly refined and sentimental." * Lamentable as it is, the 

* The Lost Cause, by E. A. Pollard, pp. 50, 51. 



THE WAR OF SLAVEEY AND FREEDOM. 591 

South came up to the greatest question in history under 
the control of this ignorant deception. 

Moreover, the sectional doctrine of State rights, which we 
have met so frequently in the history of the Republic, now 
came to its ultimate expression, affirming that the Union 
was a mere expediency for the temporary convenience of the 
States ; that each State was an independent sovereignty, 
having the right to withdraw from the confederacy of States 
at its pleasure ; that we had no American nation, only as 
each State was a nation in itself; that the people of the 
United States neither had originally, nor had acquired, any 
interests in common, which a single State might not sacrifice 
at any moment. It was now easy to see the purpose for 
which this doctrine of State rights had been adhered to with 
such persistent tenacity. The time had come which had been 
contemplated for more than a generation, when it was to be 
used as a most potent weapon for destroying the national 
government. 

The leaders of this conspiracy thought they saw in the 
election of Mr. Lincoln the lontr-desired occasion for the 
uprising of treason. Under the call of Gov. Gist, on Mon- 
day, Nov. 5, 1860, the Legislature of »Sonth Carolina met in 
extra session, first to choose electors for President and Vice- 
President, but chiefly to provide for open secession. In 
his message to this legislature. Gov. Gist said, "I am con- 
strained to say that the only alternative left, in my judgment, 
is the secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union. 
The indications from many of the Southern States justify 
the conclusion that the secession of South Carolina will be 
immediately followed, if not adopted simultaneously, by them, 
and, ultimately, by tlie whole South." He recommended 
" to place the whole military force of the State in a posi- 
tion to be used at the shortest notice." A few honest efforts 
were made to stem the tide by bringing forward the idea of 
waiting for co-operation from the other slave States ; but 
this policy, which had heretofore enabled the conservatives 



592 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

of South Carolina to triumph over constructive treason, was 
of no avail at this time. The bill for a convention to give 
the semblance of authority to the secession of the State 
passed finally on the 12th of November. 

On the 17th of December, this convention met at Colum- 
bia. Messages encouraging the daring act of secession came 
from Alabama and Mississippi. One message came which 
was promptly suppressed. It was from fifty-two members of 
the Legislature of Georgia, urging " delay and consultation 
among the slave States." This was the last appeal of reason 
which these violent conspirators had patience to hear. On 
the twentieth day of December, 1860, the fatal act of se- 
cession was passed. South Carolina was declared to be " now 
and henceforth a free and independent commonwealth." 

Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana soon 
followed. In Texas, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, 
and Virginia, the conspirators were baffled for awhile by the 
people, large majorities of whom voted and acted with great 
vigor against the proposed treason ; but they were at length 
overborne by Southern feeling, led on by the most unscru- 
pulous intrigue. Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Dela- 
ware alone, of the Southern States, finally resisted the reck- 
less attempts of fraud and violence to involve them in the 
criminal act of secession. 

The leaders did not pretend that the election of Mr. Lin- 
coln had been unconstitutional, nor that it was th^ real cause 
of this movement. In October, 1856, a secret convention 
of Southern governors, called together by Gov. Wise of Vir- 
ginia, was held at the capital of North Carolina. The pur- 
pose and spirit of this convention may be judged by the 
declaration of Gov. Wise, " that, had Fremont been elected, 
he would have marched at the head of twenty thousand 
men to Washington, and taken possession of the Capitol, pre- 
venting by force Fremont's inauguration at that place." * In 
the secession convention of South Carolina, Mr. Parker said, 

* Greeley, i. 329. 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 593 

" It is no spasmodic effort that has come suddenly upon us : 
it has been gradually culminating for the last thirty years." 
Mr. Keitt said, " I have been engaged in this movement ever 
since I entered political life." Mr. Rhett said, " The secession 
of South Carolina is not an event of a day ; it is not any 
thing produced by Mr. Lincoln's election, or by the non-exe- 
cution of the fugitive-slave law : it has been a matter which 
has been gathering head for thirty years." Thus was this 
grand conspiracy deliberately nurtured, ostensibly in the in- 
terests of the South, but really to give power to an oligarchy 
against the liberties of mankind. It had been manao-ed 
with great skill, and chiefly by a few ambitious men. It 
was virtually conceded that the people were not generally 
in favor of the measure. Mr. Mullin said, " If we wait for 
co-operation, slavery and State rights will be abandoned, and 
the cause of the South lost forever." Mr. Edmund Ruffin of 
Virginia said "he wished Virginia was as ready as South 
Carolina ; but, unfortunately, she was not." No : the people 
loved their government, and did not wish to sacrifice it on 
the altar of sectional ambition. Mr. Alexander H. Stephens 
of Georgia, in his celebrated speech in which he undertook 
to stem the tide of ruin, said most truthfully, " Some of our 
public men have failed in their aspirations, that is true ; and 
from that comes a great part of our trouble." Had Mr. 
Stephens stood firmly to his position, his history would have 
closed grandly; but his fatal adherence to State rights led 
him to say that he should go with his State. He went, and, 
by accepting high office under the rebel government, gave 
reason to suspect that he was not wholly free from the per- 
sonal ambition to which he had so correctly ascribed the 
dangers of the Republic. 



TREASON AND REBELLION. 

The first overt act of rebellion was the ordinance of seces- 
sion. It was an open, formal renunciation of the authority 



594 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

of the United States. Very grave questions arose from this 
act. Should the law immediately assert its prerogatives, fill 
the places of national trust made vacant by the conspiracy, 
and arrest the leading conspirators? Would the govern- 
ment promptly increase its defences and the number of men 
in arms within its rebellious territory ? No. Whether wise 
or unwise, it would forbear : it was great, magnanimous, and 
paternal, and would only remonstrate : it would do nothing, 
that, in the slightest degree, could be construed into hos- 
tility. 

In the mean time, rebellion went on. The South imme- 
diately began to arouse her people for stern war. Her mem- 
bers of Congress kept their places, and uttered bold, defiant 
treason in the House of Representatives and in the Senate. 
But Northern men replied with forbearance, or not at all. 
Conservatives were allowed to take the lead. Representa- 
tives of strong States were ready to pledge the repeal of all 
obnoxious laws, and promise that there should be no obsta- 
cles thrown in the way of the recovery of fugitive slaves. 
Most condescending compromise measures were brought for- 
ward ; but Southern men defeated them. A Peace Congress 
was called, in which the greatest exertions were made to 
satisfy the proud, defiant spirit that seemed to have no other 
purpose but to increase the irritation and to gain time. 
Brave, patriotic men from the border on both sides did their 
utmost to reach some pacific result ; but it was literally im- 
possible. A few men of broad national views stood up man- 
fully for the honor and dignity of their country ; but they 
were overwhelmed by the power of treason on the one hand, 
and conciliation on the other. Only God could have prevent- 
ed and did prevent the passage of measures which would 
have condemned the Republic to irredeemable disgrace. 
When the last grand crisis came, and only two votes were 
needed to compromise the government in behalf of the 
slave-power. Southern men refused the votes ; and it was all 
over. Once more the voice of the Great Sovereign was 
heard saying. " Thou shalt not bow down to them." 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 595 

But rebellion went steadily on. The Executive was with- 
out nerve. He declared that the government had no power 
to coerce a State. There was treason in the cabinet. The 
Secretary of the Treasury was a Southern man ; and he had 
managed so as to reduce the nation to the very verge of 
bankruptcy. The Secretary of War was a Southern conspir- 
ator ; and he had sent off all the arms within his reach to 
the South. Mr. Pollard, their own historian, says, " It had 
been supposed that the Southern people, poor in manufac- 
tures as they were, and in the haste for the mighty contest that 
was to ensue, would find themselves but illy provided with 
arms to contend with an enemy rich in the means and muni- 
tions of war. This disadvantage had been provided against by 
the timely act of one man. Mr. Floyd of Virginia, when 
Secretary of War under Mr. Buchanan's administration, had, 
by a single order, effected the transfer of a hundred and 
fifteen thousand improved muskets and rifles from the Spring- 
field Armory and Watervleit Arsenal to different arsenals 
at the South. Adding to these the number of arms distrib- 
uted by the Federal Government to the States in preceding 
years of our history, and those purchased by the States and 
citizens, it was safely estimated that the South entered 
upon the war with a hundred and fifty thousand small 
arms of the most approved modern pattern, and the best 
in the world." Thus had this faithless cabinet minister 
availed himself of his high position to betray the govern- 
ment he was sworn to defend. He made an additional 
bold attempt to supply the rebels with heavy ordnance ; but 
the prompt uprising and loyal resistance of citizens of Pitts- 
burg defeated this treacherous order. The Secretary of the 
Interior, also a Southern secessionist, had suffered an enor- 
mous fraud in connection with his department, tending to 
shake the public confidence in government securities. The 
obsequious power at the head of the Navy Department had 
scattered our ships-of-war over the world ; so that, at the 
opening of hostilities, we had but twelve vessels belonging 



596 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

to the home squadron ; and only three of these, with a store- 
ship in the harbor of New York, were in Nortliern waters. 

There was, moreover, treason in the army. Several dis- 
tinguished generals and subordinate officers of the regular 
army resigned their commissions, and appeared in command 
of the organizing forces of rebellion. Finally, Brig.-Gen. 
Twiggs turned over his whole army in Texas, with prop- 
erty amounting to $1,209,500, besides real estate, to Gen. 
Ben M'Culloch, representing the rebels in that State. Thus, 
by one act of most dishonorable treason, the United States 
lost full one-half of her entire miUtary force. 

It would seem that Providence permitted the government 
of freedom to come up to this terrible crisis, and commence 
its struggle for life, in a state of absolute helplessness. 
According to all human appearance, ruin was inevitable. 

In the mean time, the public property in the South was 
seized by the conspirators. One after another, our forts and 
arsenals, post-offices and vessels, were surrendered to the 
rebels, or violently seized ; and on the ninth day of February, 
1861, by a convention in Montgomery, Ala., assembled at the 
call of South Carolina, the great act of treason was consum- 
mated by the formal organization of the Confederate States 
of America. The Confederate Congress elected Jefferson 
Davis, of Mississippi, President ; and Alexander II. Stephens, 
of Georgia, Vice-President. With protestations of a desire 
for peace, but a readiness for war, this treasonable organiza- 
tion entered upon its career of blood and ruin in the spirit 
of triumph. Mr. Davis said in Stephen, Ala., '• Your border 
States will gladly come into the Southern Confederacy with- 
in sixty days, as we will be their only friends. England will 
recognize us, and a glorious future is before us. The grass will 
grow in the Northern cities, where the pavements have been 
worn oft' by the tread of commerce. We will carry war where 
it is easy to advance, where food for the sword and torch await 
our armies in the densely-populated cities; and, though they 
may come and spoil our crops, we can raise them as before, 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 597 

while they cannot rear the cities which took years of indus- 
try and millions of money to build." 

Mr. Stephens said of this new government, "Its founda- 
tions are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth, 
that the negro is not equal to the white man ; that slavery, 
subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal 
condition. This our new government is the first in the his- 
tory of the world based upon this great physical, philosophical, 
and moral truth. This stone, which was rejected by the 
first builders, is become the chief stone of the corner in our 
new edifice. I have been asked. What of the future ? It 
has been apprehended by some that we would have arrayed 
against us the civilized world. I care not who or how many 
they may be : when we stand upon the eternal principles 
of truth, we are obliged to and must triumph." 

See also with what complacency this otherwise truly great 
man alludes to the future of the old United States, and the 
gracious arrangements made for their accommodation, as, one 
after another, they should by necessity turn to the glorious 
Confederacy for protection. '• Our growth," he says, " by 
accessions of other States, will depend greatly upon whether 
we present to the world, as I trust we shall, a better govern- 
ment than that to which they belong. If we do this. North 
Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas cannot hesitate long; 
neither can Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri. They will 
necessarily gravitate to us by an imperious law. We made 
ample provision in our constitution for the admission of other 
States. It is more guarded, and wisely so I think, than the 
old Constitution on the same subject ; but not too guarded 
to receive them so fast as it may be proper. Looking to the 
distant future, and perhaps not very distant either, it is not 
beyond the range of possibility, and even probability, that 
all the great States of the North-west shall gravitate this 
way. Should they do so, our doors are wide open to receive 
them, but not until they are ready to assimilate with us in 
principle. The process of disintegration in the old Union 



598 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

may be expected to go on with almost absolute certainty. 
We are now the nucleus of a growing power, which, if we 
are true to ourselves, our destiny, and our high mission, will 
become the controlling power on this continent." 

FORT SUMTER. 

When the undisguised treason of South Carolina appeared. 
Major Robert Anderson, a gallant Kentuckian, had com- 
mand of seventy men, with headquarters at Fort Moultrie. 
Regarding this position as critical and unsafe, he quietly 
removed his small garrison to Fort Sumter. It was farther 
from Charleston, and a better fort. This the leaders of the 
Rebellion considered an offence to the nation of South Caro- 
lina. Their papers denounced it as an act of hostility, and 
in violation of an express understanding with the govern- 
ment. Mr. Floyd professed to be very indignant at this 
breach of faith, and demanded that Mr. Buchanan should 
order our troops to evacuate the forts in Charleston Harbor. 
As the President hesitated, and Floyd saw no further oppor- 
tunity of serving the cause of secession without danger to 
himself, he made this the occasion of his resignation, and 
went deliberately from under the eyes of the government 
over to her deadly foes. 

In the mean time, the volunteers from South Carolina, 
and then from other Southern States, came into Charleston 
in great numbers, armed and drilled, ready to open the war. 
They immediately took possession of Fort Moultrie, and 
commenced a vigorous improvement of all their military 
defences. 

The feeling of concern and alarm began to extend through 
the North. Timid, conservative men joined with the rebels 
to entreat Mr. Buchanan not to do any thing that would irri- 
tate the South, or provoke hostilities; while brave, manly 
patriots demanded that Fort Sumter should be immediately 
re-enforced and provisioned. The Legislature of South Caro- 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 599 

Una resolved, that " any attempt by the Federal Government 
to re-enforce Fort Sumter will be regarded as an act of open 
hostility, and a declaration of war." Gen. Dix, then Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, had attempted, but too late, to save 
two or three vessels at Mobile and on the Mississippi, and 
had sent that despatch which thrilled the patriotic heart of 
the nation, — " If any man attempts to haul down the 
American flag, shoot him on the spot." 

Government determined to make an effort to relieve our 
garrison. For this purpose, " The Star of the West," a small 
steamer, left on the night of the 5th of June, with two 
hundred and fifty men and a supply of food, for Fort Sumter. 
She reached the waters off the city of Charleston on the 
9th ; and, as she moved up toward Fort Sumter, " she was 
fired upon from Fort Moultrie and a battery on Morris Is- 
land, and, being struck by a shot, put about, and left for New 
York, without even communicating with Major Anderson." * 
Thus the conspirators commenced the war. 

On the third day of March, P. G. T. Beauregard was com- 
missioned by Jefferson Davis as a brigadier-general, and 
placed in command of all the forces at Charleston. On the 
day following, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated President 
of the United States. 

A small number of vessels had been collected, and sent to 
the relief of Fort Sumter ; the President frankly and humane- 
ly sending word to the men leading the Eebellion, that these 
vessels were not to make war upon them, but " to supply Fort 
Sumter with provisions only ; and that, if such attempt be not 
resisted, no effort to throw in more arms or ammunition will 
be made, without further notice, or in case of an attack upon 
the fort." 

Under instructions from Mr. Walker, Confederate Secretary 
of War, Gen. Beauregard, on the 11th of April, demanded 
the surrender of the fort, which Major Anderson promptly 
declined. After notice of a single hour, at half-past four, 

* Greeley, i. 412. 



600 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

A.M., on the twelfth day of April, 1861, the first gun was fired 
at Fort Sumter, from Fort Johnson, by Mr. Ruffin of Vir- 
ginia, who craved the privilege as a distinguished honor. 
This gun awoke the nation from its slumbers. To the Con- 
federate rebels it was the signal of the complete triumph of 
the slave-power and the death-knell of the Union : in fact, 
however, it was the death-knell of slavery, and the formal 
announcement of a new era of liberty to the continent and 
the world. 

The conflict was short. Immediately the fires of Moul- 
trie, Cumming's Point, and the floating-battery, answered 
the signal gun from Johnson ; and a sheet of flame encir- 
cled the doomed fort and its gallant defenders. 

Major Anderson made no hasty response. As was fitting, 
for two hours and a half this rebel fire poured its missiles 
upon the government fort without a note of response, that the 
world might know that the Confederates began the war. At 
length the guns of Major Anderson told the world that the 
nation would resist, and fight for its life. For thirty-four 
hours, this storm of ruin fell upon Fort Sumter, to be answered 
by the few guns of the Republic amid suffocating smoke and 
the flames of every thing combustible. The provisions of 
the little garrison were almost exhausted, their guns dis- 
mounted, their ammunition nearly gone. A chivalrous feel- 
ins: rose in the hearts of the assailants toward their heroic 
countrymen in their imperilled condition. Mr. Wigfall of 
Texas risked his life to induce Major Anderson to cease re- 
sistance. Representatives of the conspirators took up the 
negotiation, and the fort was surrendered. The brief de- 
spatch of Major Anderson to his government, dated April 18, 
1861, will explain the whole : " Having defended Fort Sum- 
ter for thirty-four hours, until the quarters were entirely 
burned, the main gates destroyed, the gorge-wall seriously 
injured, the magazine surrounded by flames, and its door 
closed from the effects of the heat, — four barrels and three 
cartridges of powder only being available, and no provisions 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 601 

but pork remaining, — I accepted terms of evacuation offered 
by Gen, Beauregard (being the same offered by him on the 
11th instant, prior to the commencement of hostilities), and 
marched out of the fort on Sunday afternoon, the 14th in- 
stant, with colors flying and drums beating, bringing away 
company and private property, and saluting my flag with 
fifty guns." 

It is not as a battle between armies that this event is to 
be considered ; for it was simply seventy men in a beleaguered 
fort, with nothing in preparation for war, maintaining with 
the greatest heroism the honor of their nation and flag to the 
last moment, against some seven thousand men with all 
the munitions of war and perfection of appointments which 
money or science could provide. Not a man had been killed 
(God so ordered), excepting one by the bursting of a gun 
in firing the salute. Bat enough had been done to " fire the 
Southern heart," and to awaken in the breasts of patriot 
Americans the spirit which would rise to vindicate the na- 
tion's honor, and save our liberties. 



PROVIDENTIAL ADJUSTMENTS. 

We have seen, that, whether willing or otherwise, American 
freemen were brought sternly up to confront this menacing 
despotism. No cringing submission, no humiliating com- 
promise, could avert the danger. All the endeavors of 
men, however rash or grave, were baffled by a power to a 
larsce extent unseen. Thus did God indicate that the time 
had come for a final settlement of this grand question of 
the continents and the ages. 

The war, as it advanced, would show that vast sums of 
money were required to meet its expenses ; and, in the re- 
duced condition of government finances, faith in God, 
and confidence in the people, took the place of visible re- 
sources. We were compelled to fight. The bayonet was at 
our breasts. The shouts of defiance from the gathering 



602 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

hosts of rebellion were ringing in our ears. The overt acts 
of treason were rapidly impoverishing us, and taking away 
the means of resistance. There was no alternative but to 
rise in arms, or hand over the fairest country and best 
government in the world to the hopeless rule of an odious 
tyranny. In such a crisis, how manifestly the wisdom of 
God rises above the folly of men ! It soon began to appear 
that he had given to the friends of the government every- 
where a large amount of surplus wealth, and a disposition 
to use it freely in defence of the public liberties. It was, 
moreover, a striking consideration that the rich and exhaust- 
less mines of gokl and silver on the Pacific slope, and on both 
sides of the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevadas, had 
been hid away during the long ages, and then discovered 
and developed just in time to meet this grand emergency. 
Without the large annual yield of the precious metals from 
these mines, it may be safely said that the resources for the 
war would have been soon exhausted, and the absolute destruc- 
tion of trade must have compelled a premature accommoda- 
tion. Equally providential was the fact, that the death- 
struggle of the slave-power to get control of our Pacific em- 
pire in advance of the crisis signally failed. God stirred up 
the spirit of a few brave men to fight that battle on the 
coast ; and they were Christian men, Christian ministers in- 
deed, who moved to the front in the conflict, and, at the risk of 
obloquy and personal violence, led on the moral battles which 
saved that grand inheritance for freedom. This was Provi- 
dence : it was God forecasting, and providing for contingen- 
cies utterly beyond the reach of human sagacity. 

And men were as indispensable as money, — not mere 
numbers: for nothing; is more unreliable than the calcula- 
tions of physical theorists as to just how many men it will 
require to secure success to a revolution or to overwhelm a 
rebellion. When we say men were required, we mean not 
merely the hundreds of thousands, the millions, to rise at the 
nation's call, and rush to the field of conflict ; but we mean 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 603 

true men, strong men, with a powerful, enduring physique, 
and mental force to sustain it ; patriotic men, who cared 
more for their country and liberties than for wealth or com- 
fort, or even life itself; brave men, who would not shrink 
from the flashing steel or the belching cannon ; men who 
were willing to be taxed to the last dollar if need be ; men 
imbued with the high fiith of religion, and who could go 
into battle from their knees, and with songs of praise to the 
Lord of hosts as their great commander : such men were 
required, and God had provided them in unnumbered thou- 
sands. The men of the churches, the very choicest young men 
from the prayer and class room, from the Sunday school, and 
the rooms of Christian associations, were everywhere seen 
gathering around the flag, ready to consecrate it by their 
prayers, and bathe it in their tears and their blood. They 
were the very life and soul of the grand army of Freedom. 

But these brave citizens must be led ; and it was a grave 
question who should be at the head of the nation when this 
frightful contest should come on. It must, moreover, be de- 
cided while yet an impenetrable veil hung over the dreadful 
future then just at hand. There was no wisdom in us equal 
to the selection of this man. We had our favorite candi- 
dates : we were grieved when they seemed strangely pushed 
aside, and a new man, a plain, untried man, rose up to receive 
our suffi'age. I affirm that the people did not know this 
man ; did not understand why he must be the choice of our 
leaders. We voted for him mechanically, blindly, to a large 
extent, simply understanding that he was a brave advocate 
for liberty; that he had not bowed down to slavery, and trust- 
ing that he would not; that he was a great debater, and a 
defeated candidate for the United-States Senate ; that he 
had a reputation for honesty and integrity, — all sterling 
qualities : but there were a thousand more, who, so far as 
we could see, had these to an equal degree, and a few who 
had much higher claims to statesmanship. We did not 
select him. He was brought forward, put into our hands, 



604 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

and placed at the head of the government, by One who 
knew the coming events, and the man to guide the nation 
through the storm. 

The same is true with regard to the leading minds in and 
ont of Congress, and eminently so with regard to the com- 
manders of our army and navy. How blind were most of 
our appointments ! and how uncertain, in consequence, were 
our battles and campaigns ! But at the right time, when 
the crisis demanded it, how strangely did an unseen Power 
bring forward the men, and especially the one great com- 
mander, to lead our armies through carnage and strife to the 
final triumph of liberty ! In how few instances did the pop- 
ular ideas and the judgment of Providence coincide ! but 
how clearly were the acts of God vindicated ! No matter 
how obscure and unpretending the man; God chose him: 
and we at length saw him, — the man, apparently the only 
man, for the grand emergency. Thus did Omniscient Wis- 
dom adjust th-e conditions of our final success. 

BULL RUN. 

On the 16th of July, 1861, thirty thousand men moved 
out, under Gen. M'Dowell, to offer battle to an army of 
twenty thousand Confederates, under Gen. Beauregard, at 
Manassas. As auxiliary forces, the government had eighteen 
thousand men in the Shenandoah Valley, under Gen. Pat- 
terson, confronting eight thousand under Gen. J. E. John- 
ston at Winchester. Gen. Patterson was ordered to oc- 
cupy the attention of Gen. Johnston, and prevent him 
from re-enforcino; Beaureo-ard. 

M'Dowell's forces moved in four divisions, commanded 
respectively by Gen. Tyler, Col. Hunter, Col. Heintzelman, 
and Col. Miles. These men were brave, but undisciplined. 
Their march to the field of conflict was irregular and 
retarded. This, with the difficulty of bringing up his trains, 
left Gen. M'Dowell a day behind his plans, — an impor- 



THE WAR OP SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 605 

tant day to the Confederates. He reached his headquar- 
ters, at Centreville, on the 18th. A reconnoissance in force, 
under Gen. Tyler, was immediately ordered, who, too im- 
petuous, opened an artillery-fire, which at once notified 
the enemy of the contemplated attack, and changed the 
plan of the action ; for Beauregard was just completing 
his arrangements to commence the offensive, when he dis- 
covered that he might receive his antagonist on his chosen 
ground, and with the advantage of his field-works. Tyler, 
not content without an engagement, then deployed his 
infantry along the run at Blackburn's Ford, and ordered 
them to fire into the woods. As this was a material point 
of the Confederates, they responded briskly ; and Tyler 
found it prudent to withdraw his men. 

The prelude to the great battle occupied the 19th and the 
morning of the 20th. In the mean time, M'Dowell had 
changed his plan. 

Eii>;lit brigades of the Confederates confronted the Union 
army, guarding all the fords. A large portion of John- 
ston's forces had escaped Patterson, and joined Beauregard. 
This brought also to the Confederates the superior military 
skill of Gen. Johnston, who ranked Beauregard, and who 
upon all occasions showed the cool deliberation and steady 
valor of a good commander. 

The Confederate generals now resolved to take the initia- 
tive; and, on the night of the 20th, orders were despatched to 
cross the creek at the lower fords, and attempt to turn the 
Union left. Before these orders reached their destination, 
Gen. McDowell had commenced the attack. Most unfor- 
tunately, this was Sunday morning, God's day of rest. Hunt- 
er's and Heintzclmau's divisions, being behind Tyler's, were 
delayed three hours beyond the time appointed in getting 
to their position across Sudley's Ford, where the first main 
attack was to be made. Tyler, prompt as usual, moved up 
to his place at Stone Bridge, and at half-past six precisely, 
the time appointed, fired his signal gun. Evans, on the ex- 



606 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

treme rebel left, was occupied some three hours by the noise 
of Tyler's cannonade ; but, observing a large column of men 
moving through the woods toward his rear, he changed front, 
and, in half an hour, threw his demi-brigade in order of battle 
in the way of the advancing Union troops. Burnside's men 
came first into action ; Porter's next debouched from the 
woods, and formed on the right ; Sykes, with his eight hun- 
dred regulars and Griffin's battery, took position promptly 
on the left; and the great battle began. Re-enforcements 
came to the support of Evans on the Confederate side. 
Col. Bee with a part of his brigade from Johnston's army. 
Col. Bartow with a portion of his brigade, and Imboden 
and Richardson with six additional pieces of artillery, came 
up, and entered vigorously into the conflict. The rebels' right, 
in the woods, was pressed severely by Sykes's battalion. Col. 
Bee, now in command of the Confederates, resisted with 
great bravery and strength ; but the Union troops pressed 
him back, and soon became masters of that part of the field. 
They swept across Young's Branch, and forced the enemy up 
the slope to the top of the hill. Hampton, with his famous 
legion, rushed in to restore the battle, but, as Johnston said, 
"only helped to render efficient service in maintaining the 
orderly character of the retreat from that point." On the 
top of the ridge stood Col. Jackson with his brigade, 
dressed and calm as on a public parade. " There," said Bee, 
" is Jackson, standing like a stone wall ; " and ever thereafter 
he was " Stonewall Jackson." 

Let us now turn to another part of this bloody field. 
The movement of Evans to meet Hunter had left an open- 
ing in the Confederate lines. From the- tops of trees it was 
seen that Evans was receding from the fire of Hunter's men. 
His re-enforcements coming up increased his stubborn resist- 
ance, but without decisive effect. Tyler ordered Sherman 
and Keyes to move up to Hunter's left. This was done 
promptly ; but, the enemy yielding to the energy of Hunter's 
forces, Sherman, reporting to McDowell, was ordered to join 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY ANf) TREEDOM. 607 

in the pursuit of the enemy, who were falling back to the 
Sudley-springs Road. Keyes formed on the left; and Heintzel- 
man swept over the conquered field, and came up vigorously 
into action. 

Victory for the grand army of the Republic now seemed 
certain. M'^Dowell had three divisions, including some 
eighteen thousand men in admirable position; and, flushed 
with victory, they were ready to move on, and finish the 
battle. 

Johnston and Beauregard, seeing the critical condition of 
their army, ordered up fresh troops. The brigades of Holmes, 
Early, Bonham, and Ewell, with the batteries of Pendleton 
and Albertis, promptly entered the struggle. The Confeder- 
ate, commanders rode rapidly four miles to the front, and 
threw themselves into the places of dreadful slaughter. 
Johnston seized the colors of the Fourth Alabama, and of- 
fered to lead the attack. Gen. Beauregard leaped from his 
horse, and, turning his face to his troops, exclaimed, "I 
have come here to die with you ! " The courage of their 
fainting army rose again. Many of the broken troops, frag- 
ments of companies, and individual stragglers, were re-formed, 
and brought into action. The battle was restored, and now 
raged furiously on the plateau around the Henry and the 
Robinson Houses. The brigades of Bee, Evans, Bartow, 
Bonham, Jackson, Hampton's legion, and Fisher's regiment, 
with the batteries of Imboden, Pendleton, Albertis, and 
others, now formed a new line. of battle; and they were as- 
sailed with terrific energy by Union forces under com- 
mand of Wilcox and Howard, supported by parts of Porter's 
brigade and Palmer's cavalry on the right, Franklin and 
Sherman in the centre, and Keyes on the left. The batteries 
of Rickett and Griffin were on the right, and that of Rhode 
Island on the left. Schenck's brigade and Ayres's battery 
on the other side of the run, and nine thousand men under 
Miles at Centreville, were in reserve. 

The enemy's right now rushed to the charge ; and Jack- 



608 THE GREAT KEPUBLIC. 

son hurled his column against and broke the Union centre. 
The Confederates gained a temporary success, taking the 
plateau, and capturing several guns ; but the Union infantry 
moved up in heavy force, and regained the field. Once more 
victory perched on the banners of Liberty, and a certain tri- 
umph seemed just at hand. 

It was now two o'clock. Fresh troops from Johnston's 
army came up. Eeserves were brought forward, and another 
dreadful contest came on. The Confederates came forward 
with ringing cheers and dreadful energy, which threatened 
to carry all before them. Keyes charged up the slope, 
through rebel cavalry and infantry, and took the Rob- 
inson House. A still fiercer conflict raged on the Union 
right, around the Henry House. The lines surged one 
way and the other. Griffin's and Rickett's batteries were 
captured and recaptured. " Three times the Confederates 
overran Griffin's battery, and three times they were repulsed ; 
while thrice also the Union batteries surged in vain against 
the Confederate position." * The battle hung in suspense. 
The heat was dreadful ; and the suffering of the Northern 
troops was almost beyond endurance. 

The Confederate commander now ordered up Ewell's, 
Holmes's, and Early's brigades, who had been guarding the 
fords ao-ainst the demonstrations of Miles and Richardson. 
These fresh troops burst upon the Union lines with dreadful 
fury. M'Dowell brought up Howard's brigade, almost fresh; 
Tyler swept through the abatis, and, carrying the batteries 
at the stone bridge, deployed in the open country beyond. 
Schenck, with his fresh brigade, dashed across the stone bridge, 
and moved on to the right of the enemy. The third grand 
crisis of the battle had come ; when suddenly on the enemy's 
left, more than a mile distant, the front of a column was seen 
in motion. By signals, Beauregard was warned to " look 
out for the enemy's advance on the left." Was it Patterson, 
with his eighteen thousand fresh troops, to relieve the pant- 

* Decisive Battles of the War, by Swinton, pp. 13-42. 



THE WAK or SLAVERY AND FEEEDOM. 609 

ing, bleeding freemen, and decide at once this dreadful 
.struggle? or was it the long-expected remaining forces of 
Johnston, moving up to give sudden triumph to the mano^led 
hosts of slavery ? All eyes were strained to catch the lio-ht 
of the banners. " At this moment," says Beauregard, " I must 
confess, my heart failed me. I could not tell to which army 
the waving banners belonged." He gave to Col. Evans 
orders for Johnston to make hasty preparations for a re- 
treat. Gazing still at the advancing column, a gust of wind 
shook out the folds of the flag; and it was the stars and 
bars. " Col. Evans," exclaimed Beauregard, his face lighting 
up, "ride forward, and order Gen. Kirby Smith to hurry up 
his command, and strike them on the flank and rear ! " Cheer 
after cheer rose from the Confederate ranks. Horror seized 
the bleeding, panting Union men. On, on, came the proud 
column, with their weapons of death glittering in the sun. In 
a few moments more, they struck our staggering ranks in 
flank and rear. Early's fresh brigade, coming up at the in- 
stant, fell upon our right flank ; and Gen. Beauregard led 
on his now fierce and rallying hosts in the centre. It was 
too much for our wearied, bleeding^ volunteers, sv/elteriuf 
under a Southern sun, to endure. They were forced down 
the long-contested hill; and the battle of Bull Run was lost. 
The heroic efforts of our generals to re-form their columns 
were but partially successful. A battery, dashing to the 
rear for a re-supply of ammunition, was supposed to be in 
retreat ; and a panic began. Masses of troops, demoralized, 
surged against each other. A shot from Kemper's rebel bat- 
tery struck the horses of a wagon, crossing Cub-Run 
Bridge : the vehicle was overturned, and the passage 
obstructed. Amid the confusion, the Confederate artillery 
began to play upon the masses rushing for the obstructed 
bridge ; and a scene which beggars all description followed. 
Horses, cannon, men, and carriages were crushed together 
in one tumultuous ruin; metnbers of Congress, gala-day 
spectators, who had been waiting to echo the exultant shout 

77 



610 THE GREAT KEPUBLIC. 

of a Union victory, and join the hosts of freedom as they 
moved in triumph " on to Richmond," were now struggHng 
for their hves amid the surging mass rushing toward 
Washington. 

Tlie Confederates seemed stunned by the appaUing sight, 
and paralyzed by the effects of their victory : so suddenly 
and unexpectedly had they been rescued from ruin, that 
commanders and men seemed not to have strength enough 
remaining to endure their joy. There was no pursuit equal 
to the opportunity. The only movement of importance of 
this kind attempted was checked by a single battery, with a 
column of brave men from the reserves at Centreville ; and 
the Confederate chieftains gave up their hosts, first to de- 
lirious joy, and then to repose. 

The Union men were without power to think, command, 
or obey, until they had reached their quarters at Alexandria. 
So little of the true promptness and energy of a successful 
campaign appeared in the rebel army, that a courageous 
commander, with a small body of men, soon turned back on 
the track of the route, and, gathering up at his leisure 
enormous quantities of fire-arms, heavy ordnance, and am- 
munition, brought them in safety to the Union camp. 

Several things in this first terrible battle for the preser- 
vation of the Union seem at first inexplicable. Why did 
not the reserves under Miles move promptly down upon the 
enemy when the crisis came, and the fords were nearly 
abandoned to concentrate all the rebel forces in the second 
grand crisis of the battle ? Perhaps their commander re- 
ceived no orders: certain it is that he was in no condition 
to understand or execute them. Richardson, his next in 
command, literally implored permission to move, but was 
not allowed. Thus nine thousand fresh troops listened to 
the noise of the battle, which was at length literally destroy- 
ing their companions in arms, without being allowed to march 
to their relief Why were not fresh re-enforcements brought 
up from the stations in the rear, and hurried on from Washing- 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FBEEDOM. 611 

ton ? The infatuated Union authorities were too sure of an 
easy conquest to give room to ordinary prudence. Why did 
not Patterson detain Johnston at Winchester with half the 
number of men, and make our victory certain ? or, at least, 
why did he not follow Johnston with such celerity as to over- 
take him on the grand field of action ? or, at the very least, 
why did he not fall upon that body of men detained for 
the want of railroad conveyance, and prevent the appear- 
ance of that splendid column on the field in the last grand 
crisis ? To all this it may be answered, that there was con- 
fusion of orders from headquarters, or that the time of large 
numbers of Patterson's three-months' men had expired. 

But all the explanations given are inadequate. How 
easily could all these conditions have been controlled by the 
Hand above us ! The time had not come. What depths of 
humiliation for our national sins were yet to be reached ! 
what severity of discipline, what struggles for justice, before 
God could permit our arms to triumph ! Had the onset been 
delayed till our army organizations and drills began to ap- 
proximate true military order; had the transportation of troops 
and supplies been prompt, so as to have brought our forces 
into action on Friday, as was intended, instead of Sunday ; 
had Hunter and Heintzelman been able to get their forces 
into position on the enemy's right before the firing of Tyler's 
signal gun ; had the commander of the reserves retained his 
sobriety and self-control ; had Patterson moved promptly, and 
engaged Johnston only for twenty-four hours, — how certain 
would have been our victory ! But God would not permit 
any of these contingencies to control the result : if he had, 
and the Union troops had moved on to immediate and suc- 
cessive conquests, we should to-day have been a nation of 
slaveholders ; and the cry of injustice would now rise up to 
Heaven against us. We had learned the character of our 
foe, gained successes sufficient to demonstrate our patriotism 
and power on the battle-field, and received a discipline of 
inestimable value. This was all Providence intended. 



612 THE GREAT REPUBLIC, 



BALL S BLUFF. 

The freemen of the nation were humbled and roused by 
the disaster of Bull Run. Volunteers from every part of 
the country poured into Washington ; and the Army of the 
Potomac was re-organized under Gen. George B. M'Clellan. 
In September, he held his first grand review, and seventy 
thousand men moved with great military precision at his com- 
mand ; but still the number increased, until absolute neces- 
sity for space crowded back the rebel forces in the immediate 
vicinity of Washington, resting upon the laurels of Manas- 
sas. 

On the 20th of October, Gen. M'Clellan ordered Gen. 
Stone to "keep a good lookout on Leesburg, to see if dem- 
onstrations made by Gen. M-Call from Dranesville had in- 
duced the Confederates to retire ; " and Capt. Philbrick, from 
the Fifteenth Massachusetts, with a few men, was ordered 
to cross, by the way of Harrison Island, to the Virginia 
shore, and reconnoitre. They ascended Ball's Bluff for this 
purpose ; but the only appearance of a hostile force was a 
small camp of rebels not well guarded. Col. D evens was direct- 
ed to send five companies of his regiment quietly, and attack 
the camp at daybreak. Col. Lee, Twentieth Massachusetts, 
was to take charge of the island with four companies, and 
send one of them over to the Virginia shore to wait the re- 
turn of Col. Devens. Col. Devens accordingly crossed, and 
drew up his five companies just at daylight. Scouts were 
sent out, who reported that they could find no camp. Col. 
Devens advanced to within a mile of Leesburg, and, seeing 
no enemy, halted in a wood, reported to Gen. Stone, and 
waited further orders. 

At seven, a.m., he discovered a company of riflemen, and 
three of cavalry ; but they retired as they were approached. 
Col. Devens then fell back to the bluff, where he received orders 
from Gen. Stone to remain. He found he had twenty-eight offi- 
cers, and six hundred and twenty-five men. At about twelve, 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FUEEDOM. 613 

M., with his little army in an open field of about six acres,, 
he was attacked by musketry from the surrounding woods. 
Falling back nearly to the edge of the bluff, he was re-en- 
forced by Col. E. D. Baker with his brave California regi- 
ment, who immediately saw that our men were in a critical 
condition, and would have called them away ; but it was too 
late : they were already engaged. Col. Baker was a sena- 
tor, and might have excused himself from danger ; but his 
patriotism and bravery would not allow it. He had seen 
the demon of rebellion loose, and raging in our midst, and 
his soul of fire could not be restrained. While his over- 
whelming eloquence pleaded for his country in the senate- 
chamber, there was treason in the air, treason in the army 
and navy, treason in the cabinet, treason in the halLs of 
congress ; and he could not stay. He rushed to the field to 
be compromised, sacrificed by a mistake, a crime. Where 
was the responsibility ? No one could tell. He did not in- 
quire. His simple exclamation, " This is a bad business," lin- 
gers upon our ears to-day like the knell of death. 

Col. Baker, as the highest officer in the field, assumed the 
command. He promptly arranged the order of battle. The 
Fifteenth Massachusetts, Col. Devens, six hundred and fifty- 
three men, was on the right ; the Twentieth Massachusetts, 
Col. Lee, three hundred and eighteen men, in the centre ; the 
California regiment, Lieut.-Ccl. Wistar, and the New- York 
Tammany regiment. Col. Milton Cogswell, in the rear of the 
California regiment, on the left, — one thousand nine hun- 
dred men in all. 

These brave Union soldiers were hardly formed before they 
were attacked by rebel infantry from the woods. A desperate 
struggle of two hours ensued. Col. Baker exposed himself 
like a common soldier. His brave and gallant bearing amid 
the slaughter gave courage to his diminishing forces, and 
made him a mark for rebel bullets. A little before five o'clock, 
he fell, shot through the head. The rebel who shot him fell 
instantly pierced by the bullets of the brave soldiers who 



614 THE GREAT REPUBLIC, 

rushed to save their idolized commander. His body waa 
borne away in mournful triumph. 

Col. Cogswell, seeing our men rapidly falling, took the 
brave resolution of cutting his way through to Edwards 
Ferry, only three miles distant, where Gen. Stone had a 
strong force unemployed ; but, in the attempt, he met a 
fresh Mississippi regiment advancing from the direction of 
the ferry expressly to cut off the retreat. Our troops gave 
way, and rushed down the bluff, to find no provision for 
their escape. The rebels advanced, and poured into the 
struggling, helpless mass a most destructive fire. The single 
flat-bottomed boat was over-loaded, fired into, and sunk. 
" The life-boat and skiff were upset and lost, and the work 
of unresisted slaughter went on." * 

A few escaped in the darkness to tell the tale of another 
frightful disaster to the arms of the Republic. Why re-en- 
forcements were not sent from Edwards Ferry, why there 
were no transports to provide against casualties on the 
banks of a deep river, no one can tell : we only know that 
our troops were left to be slaughtered, that our beloved 
Baker had fallen, and that the fair fame of the nation was 
once more tarnished. 

PORT ROYAL. 

As an evidence of the elastic power of the United States, 
in contrast with the twelve ships of all kinds available when 
the war began, on the 24th of October, 1861, six months 
from the attack on Sumter, a fleet of fifty sail, under Rear- 
Admiral S. F. Dupont, moved out grandly from Hampton 
Roads with sealed orders. So well had the secret of its des- 
tination been kept, that the excited people, whether Union- 
ists or Rebels, could not tell where the intended blow was 
likely to fall. 

Soon, off Cape Hatteras, this proud fleet encountered a 
most furious storm. It was a crisis in the faith of our loyal 

* Greeley, i. 623. 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 615 

people. It seemed as if God was angry with us, and had 
commissioned the winds of heaven to destroy us. 

At length, however, the storm abated ; and Sunday evening 
fourteen sail of the scattered fleet hove in sight. Monday 
noon the flag-ship " Wabash," and some thirty-six more vessels, 
joined the squadron off Port Royal. 

Tuesday, while the admiral was making his dispositions for 
battle, he was attacked by three rebel gunboats ; which, how- 
ever, were soon willing to retire. 

Fort Walker on Hilton Head, with twenty-three guns, and 
Fort Beauregard on Bay Point, with fifteen guns, guarded 
the entrance to Port-Roj^al Sound. At nine o'clock Thursday 
morning, " The Wabash " gave the signal for advance, and led 
the way ; and the " Susquehanna," " Mohican," " Seminole," 
"Pawnee," " Unadilla," "Pembina," "Bienville," "Seneca," 
" Curlew," "Penguin," "Ottawa," and "Vandalia," vessels se- 
lected for their light draught, followed in single file, with 
ports open, and bristling with heavy guns. The first attack 
was destined for Fort Walker. Beyond the entrance of the 
harbor lay the little rebel fleet, under command of Tat> 
nail, but recently an honored officer of the American navy. 
Still farther in the rear was " a fleet of steamboats, that had 
come from Charleston to witness the destruction of the 
Yankee fleet." 

As Dupont approached Hilton Head, a tremendous fire 
was opened upon him from Fort Walker; but he moved on 
in silence until three vessels were in position, when their 
broadsides were delivered ; and " the shot and shell from 
seventy-five guns fell in one wild crash on the fort." He 
moved on; and, one after another, the ships followed, deliv- 
erino; their fire while in motion. Thus the wooden vessels 
were at no time stationary targets for the artillery of the 
fort ; and, moving in a splendid elliptical circle, they poured 
a constant fire, first into " Walker," and then into " Beaure- 
gard." An eighty-pound rifle-ball went clear through the 
mast of "The Wabash;" another pierced her after-magazine, 



616 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

letting the water into it : but she kept on her sublime way, 
proudly leading the long file of flaming ships. Capt. Ro- 
gers said, '- ' The Wabash ' was a destroying angel ; hugging 
the f^liore ; calling the soundings with cold indifference; 
slowing the engine so as to give only steerage-way ; signal- 
ling the vessels their various evolutions ; and, at the same 
time, raining shell, as with target-practice, too fast to count." 

The gunboats found an available position in a cove, and 
commenced an enfilading fire on Hilton Head. At twelve, m.. 
Admiral Dupont gave the signal, and his ships withdrew for 
his men to rest, and take refreshments ; but the gunboats 
kept up a galling fire. 

At three o'clock, p.m., just as Admiral Dupont was about 
to commence again his dreadful circuit of death, the firing 
from the forts ceased. Capt. Rogers rowed directly to Fort 
Walker, and found it deserted. He promptly raised the stars 
and stripes above the ruins. No pen can describe the elec- 
trical effect of this sight. For five hours, these grim mariners 
and the army of Gen. Sherman had endured the perils, or 
watched the progress, of this terrific battle ; and now the 
flag of their country waved in triumph in token of victory. 
Cheers rose from thousands of heroes; and "The Star-span- 
gled Banner" rang out through the Southern air. 

Gen. T. W. Sherman landed his troops, and assumed 
command. It is impossible to exaggerate the happy effects 
of this victory. The government of the Republic had re- 
sumed its functions within the territory of South Carolina. 
Port Royal promptly rose to importance as a naval depot. 
Her piers and docks were alive with improvements. This 
first great achievement of the navy had filled the country 
with triumphant joy. Our disasters on land were well-nigh 
forgotten. The rebel coast was thrown into the greatest 
alarm. Dupont, the naval hero, whose praise was upon the 
lips of patriots everywhere, moved from place to place ; and, 
driving the rebel forces inland, he raised the flag of our 
Union over Fort Clinch, Fernandina, and St. Augustine, 



TEE WAE, OF SLAVERY A^D FREEDOM. 617 

Fla. ; and the whole coast of Georgia was held by his 
squadron." * 

ROANOKE ISLAND. 

Jan. 11 and 12, 1862, Commander L. M. Goldsborough 
left Fortress Monroe with a lleet of thirty-one steam gunboats, 
mounting ninety-four guns, accompanied by eleven thousand 
five hundred men under command of Gen, Ambrose E. 
Burnside. This army was mainly from New England ; and 
its three brigades, commanded by Gens. Foster, Eeno, and 
Parke, " embarked with their materiel on some thirty to for- 
ty steam transports." The expedition had been fitted out, 
chiefly in New York, to break the silence in the East. 

Roanoke Island was included in the rebel command of 
Ex-Gov. Henry A. Wise. His force was notoriously in- 
adequate for so important a defence ; and he made the most 
energetic appeals to the Confederate War Department for in- 
crease of men and means. He was, however, simply ordered 
to repair to his post. The rebel Secretary of War, Benjamin, 
despised the Union forces and people, and showed, as did the 
improvident Southern people generally on the Eastern bor- 
der, the slackness resulting from their disastrous victory at 
Manassas. 

Arriving at Hatteras Inlet on the 13th, our ships met with 
great difficulty and some serious disasters in attempting to 
cross the bar. It was the 5th of February before our fleet 
and stores could be re-adjusted, and the order given to move. 
On that day, sixty-five vessels passed slowly up Pamlico and 
Croatan Sounds, and anchored within ten miles of Roanoke 
Island. At eight o'clock, a.m., on the 6th, the fleet moved ; 
and at eleven o'clock it was arrested by a storm, and delayed 
till ten, A.M., of the next day. Passing through the Roanoke 
Inlet, a rebel fleet of seven gunboats appeared, but, moving 
before our vessels, showed no disposition to engage. At 

* Farragut and our Naval Commanders, by Headley, p. 135 : see also the whole chap- 
ter. 

78 



618 THE GREAT KEPUBLIC. 

twelve, M., our fleet came under fire of a strong battery known 
as Fort Bartow, when the rebel gunboats, which had evidently 
intended to lead us there to destruction, paused, and joined 
in the battle. Our brave men tore away, or moved over, the 
piles intended to obstruct their advance. " Soon," says Mr. 
Pollard, " the air was filled with heavy reports, and the sea 
was disturbed in every direction by fragments of shell. 
Explosions of shell rang through the air ; and occasionally a 
large hundred-and-twenty-four pounder thundered across the 
waves, and sent its ponderous shot in the midst of the flotilla. 
At times, the battery would be enveloped in the sand and 
dust thrown up by shot and shell." The rebel flag-ship, " The 
Curlew," was struck by a hundred-pound shell from " The 
Southfield," and soon enveloped in flames; the propeller 
" Forrest " was disabled ; and the remainder of the rebel fleet 
retired finally from the conflict. The barracks of the enemy 
were consumed by our fire, and heroic efforts were required 
to subdue the flames bursting from the fort. 

By eleven o'clock at night, Gen. Burnside had landed seven 
thousand five hundred men within two miles of the fort. 
Through a long, rainy night, these heroic men crouched in the 
marsh, eagerly waiting for the dreadful work of the morning. 
Before them was Fort Bartow, a substantial earthwork, with 
abatis, moat, and ten guns ; farther on, batteries Huger and 
Blanchard, with fourteen guns. Leading to Bartow was a 
single causeway swept by the enemy's guns, and, on either 
hand, bogs, which could be passed only with the greatest dif- 
ficulty ; and they were crossed by an intrenchment, behind 
which the rebels intended to make a desperate stand. 
At the word, our heroic men rushed upon the enemy's line, 
and carried it with the utmost gallantry. Here among the 
slain fell a brave and splendid young man, 0. Jennings Wise, 
son of the governor. Fighting through the morass, up to 
within easy range of the guns from the fort, Burnside's 
troops, finding it impracticable to obey the order to turn the 
enemy's flank through the marsh, were ordered to charge 



THE WAB OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 619 

over the causeway. " The order was obeyed with such prompt- 
ness and energy as to defy all resistance : then, throwing 
themselves down to escape a fire of grape from the batteries, 
part of the Fifty-first New- York, with Hawkins's Zouaves 
and the Twenty-first Massachusetts, instantly rose, and rushed 
over the rebel breastworks, chasing out their defenders, and 
following them in their retreat, securing by their impetuosity 
the capture of a large number, as no time was given for 
their escape from the island." * 

The results of this grand achievement were of the greatest 
importance. Remaining forts and batteries fell ; the rebel 
fleet was pursued ; and, there being no hope of escape, it was 
burned by its own men. Mr. Pollard says we " had taken 
six forts, forty guns, nearly two thousand prisoners, and up- 
wards of three thousand small arms ; secured the water-ave- 
nues of Roanoke River, navigable for a hundred and twenty 
miles ; got possession of the granary and larder of Norfolk, 
and threatened the back door of that city." The fall of 
Newbern, after a tremendous battle, was a direct sequence of 
the triumph on Roanoke Island : the time had come for the 
pride of the Rebellion to be humbled. 



FORT DONELSON. 

Let us now turn our eyes to the West. "We there see 
Missouri saved to the Union by the prompt decisions and 
energetic action of Capt (afterwards Gen.) Lyon, who 
fell in the moment of victory, greatly lamented by the 
American people ; the formidable and imposing measures 
of Gen. Fremont, and the famous, terrific charge of his 
" body-guard ; " the treason of Gov. Jackson, with his 
pretences to take Missouri out of the Union against the de- 
clared will of a large majority of her people ; the reckless 
attack upon his own State by the rebel general Price, and 
the cruel siege and slaughter at Lexington. We see also 

* Greeley, ii. 76. 



G20 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

the gathering of Union forces from the West, — men whose 
pioneer habits had prepared them for this war, and whose 
large intelHgence and clear-sighted patriotism had deter- 
mined them to hew their way to the mouth of the Missis- 
sippi; we see the first iron-clad fleet afloat on the Mis- 
sissippi, commanded by the brave, devout, and energetic 
Commodore Foote ; and we catch the first sight of Gen. U. S. 
Grant, the great American, whose calm judgment, keen 
eye, and desperate valor, were to shed undying lustre 
upon our arms and nation. 

The Confederates, finding that Kentucky and Missouri 
had settled down into theu^ proper position as loyal States 
of the Union, determined to repudiate the doctrine of State 
rights, and made war upon their brethren in slave territory. 
They determined to take military possession of the " upper 
centre zone " of the West, lying above the Tennessee River. 
This enormous task was intrusted to the command ot 
Gen. Albert Sydney Johnson, an officer formerly of high 
repute in the regular army of the United States. When 
the war broke out, he had control of our forces on the Pa- 
cific, with headquarters at Alcatraz, San Francisco. As he 
evidently waited his opportunity to turn his command 
against his country, and tear from the head of the nation 
her golden crown, California, Oregon, and the Territories 
of our vast Pacific empire, were saved from the horrors of 
the Rebellion by the sudden, unannounced arrival of Gen. 
Sumner, who promptly relieved the future rebel general of 
his command. True to his purposes of treason, he soon 
found his way to the Southern army, where he was recog- 
nized as first in importance among the commanders of 
treason. 

Commodore Foote with his formidable war-fleet, and Gen. 
Grant, now intrusted with the command, under Gen. 
Halleck, of a large military district, had agreed upon the 
plan of their campaign. The Cumberland and Tennessee 
Rivers were guarded by Forts Henry and Donelson. These 



^ THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 621 

were the keys to the upper and lower centre zones of thi?. 
great war of the West; and after the preludes of Belmont, 
where Grant gained a surprising advantage over the rebels, 
and destroyed the camp, but was flanked, and obliged to 
retire ; and of Mill Springs, where Gen. Thomas gained 
our first brilliant victory on land, — Grant and Foote moved 
boldly into the rebel territory to attempt the reduction of 
these forts. The combined land and naval attack upon 
Fort Henry was ordered for the 6th of February, 1862. 
Grant was to move to the rear of the fort to co-operate with 
Foote, and to prevent the escape of the garrison ; but the 
energetic naval commander ran up the Tennessee to within 
cannon-shot of the enemy, and commenced the action with 
such promptness and spirit, and dashed the rebel batteries to 
pieces with such fury, that the garrison surrendered to the 
commodore before Gen. Grant could force his way to his 
intended position. 

Johnson saw his danger, and, resolving to defend Nash- 
ville at Donelson, threw into the fort sixteen thousand of his 
best troops. The works had been constructed under the eye 
of a skilful engineer, and were very strong. Its river-defences 
were admirable ; but, for the arrest of land-forces, the place 
was badly chosen. Anticipating the approach of Gen. 
Grant from Fort Henry directly toward a line of hills which 
would command the works, the Confederates took possession 
of these hills, shielding their forces by a line of earthworks, 
rifle-trenches, and abatis. By the greatest exertions, they 
were completed before Grant arrived. 

Gen. Grant, with two divisions of fifteeen thousand men, 
reached his position on the afternoon of the 12th. The 
second division, under Brig.-Gen. C. F. Smith, moved to the 
left; and the first, under Brig.-Gen. J. A. M'Clernand, to 
the right. On the morning of the 13th, the action com- 
menced by a furious cannonade. In the afternoon, a bold 
attempt was made to take an important point by assault, in 
which the forces of Grant were vigorously repulsed b}^ the 
Confederates. 



622 THE GREAT EEPTIBLIC. 

Friday the 14th, Commodore Foote appeared with his 
noble fleet of iron-clads, gunboats, and transports, bringing 
ample supplies of rations and ammunition and ten thousand 
men, all welcomed by ringing cheers from the army. This 
splendid re-enforcement, constituting a third division under 
Gen, Lew. Wallace, was ordered to take position between the 
commands of Gens. M'^Clernand and Smith. The 14th was 
occupied by Gen. Grant in getting the troops just arrived 
into position. Commodore Foote, having perfect confidence 
in his iron-clads, moved up promptly, and commenced the 
action ; but he met a far different reception from that at 
Fort Henry. The rebels had arranged two formidable bat- 
teries so as to take frightful effect by plunging fire upon the 
vessels of the fleet. They consisted of eight thirty-two- 
pounders, three thirty-two-pound carronades, one ten-inch 
and one eight-inch columbiad, and one rifled thirty-two- 
pounder. The rebels reserved their fire until the com- 
modore brought up his fleet within less than four hundred 
yards of their batteries : then they suddenly opened with 
so terrific a fire as to soon end the strife on the water 
side of the fort. This action lasted only an hour and a half; 
but fiftj^-four patriots were killed or wounded, while not a 
Confederate was killed, nor had their batteries received any 
injury! The American people had learned one more lesson; 
and the brave commodore retired to repair his fleet, while 
Grant prepared to reduce the fort by siege. He was one 
of those extraordinary men who could fight with the most 
chivalrous daring, or wait in perfect self-command until his 
time should come. 

Two days had sufficed to show the army of the Republic 
that the Confederate general had prepared this position for a 
most stubborn defence, to cripple and send out of the action 
a valuable and trusted fleet, and also to convince the rebel 
chiefs in command that Fort Donelson must soon become 
untenable. A Confederate council of war, therefore, resolved 
upon a desperate effort to clear the only practicable road to 
Nashville. 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 623 

At five o'clock on the morning of Saturday, the 5th, they 
moved out to assault M'Clernand's division promptly drawn 
up in order of battle, — the right under M' Arthur, the centre 
under Oglesby, and the left under W. H. L. Wallace. Adroitly 
taking advantage of a ravine, the Confederates gained the 
rear of the Union right flank. Sustained by a corresponding 
movement by Pillow's whole line, they swept the Union right 
brigade from their position. Buckner brought up his forces, 
and furiously attacked M'Clernand's left, commanded by Col. 
W. H. L. Wallace. The Union infantry stood firm, and poured 
in so deadly a fire from rifles and batteries, that the rebels 
recoiled, and settled back, greatly demoralized. The brigade 
of Oglesby was overborne by the masses brought to bear upon 
them by Pillow, v/ho followed up his successes vigorously, 
and pays the Union troops the compliment to say, " They did 
not retreat, but fell back fighting, and contesting every inch 
of ground." Col. Wallace's brigade stood firm as a rock 
against all the shocks of superior numbers of perfectly des- 
perate rebels : but, about to be enveloped by Buckner's divis- 
ion, Wallace withdrew his men ; and at nine, a.m., by throw- 
ing their whole force upon one-third of the Union army, 
the first purpose of the Confederates had succeeded, and the 
road to Nashville was cleared. 

Gen. Lew. Wallace, on M'Clernand's left, had sent one 
brigade to the assistance of the right ; only, however, to be 
overborne by the advancing tide of Confederate success. 

Seeing the critical condition of the army. Gen. Wallace 
now despatched his remaining force under Col. Thayer, 
who moved up at double-quick, and deployed on the top of 
the hill, forming a firm wall against the Confederate advance, 
and behind which the troops, who had not fled, but retired 
to refill their cartridge-boxes, could re-organize. He reminds 
us of Stonewall Jackson on the heights of Manassas. Just 
at the time when the Confederates were in triumph over 
their supposed victory, moving eagerly up the slope, they 
mot a fire so deadly, that they recoiled and retired. Drawn 



624 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

up again out of range, they were forced to another attack, 
and were again repulsed with severe loss. 

Gen. Grant now appeared on the field. He had been 
absent in conference with Commodore Foote, arranging the 
future of the campaign. Then the firm greatness and bold 
daring of the commander appeared. He afterwards said, 
" I saw that either side was ready to give wa}' if the other 
showed a bold front. I took the opportunity, and ordered 
an advance along the whole line." Wallace, on the right, 
was simply ordered to retake the ground he had lost in the 
morning; Smith, to storm the enemy's works in front. Gen. 
Smith put himself at the head of Lauman's brigade in 
battalion, with Cook's brigade in line of battle on its left, to 
cover that flank, and make a feint against the front. Buck- 
ner's column, seeing the danger, moved up rapidly to attack 
the storming party, but staggered back under the Union fire 
as often as they returned to the onset. The Union troops, 
" tearing away the abatis, rushed forward, and seized the 
breastworks." Buckner with his men took shelter within 
the defences, and left the brave Union men in possession of 
the heights which commanded the main works of the 
enemy. * 

Let us now return to Wallace. He promptly obeyed his 
orders. He assailed Pillow's troops with such fury as to 
overwhelm him on the ground he had wrested from the 
Union forces in the morning, and drove him witliin his own 
lines. Tliis was a dreadful day's work : some two thousand 
men on each side were strewn over the bloody field, ghastly 
in death, or agonizing with pain from their severe wounds. 
The Confederate forces had been successful everywhere till 
they struck against Wallace on the hill and the great com- 
mander appeared on the field. They had missed their only 
possible opportunity of escape, received the rallying energy 
of the troops they supposed they had destroyed, and were 
shut up within their defences now dominated by Union guns. 

* Swinton, p. 78, and the whole description of the battle. 



THE WAR OF SLAVEEY AND FREEDOM. 625 

On that dreadful Saturday night, there was no rest for the 
exhausted troops on either side. On the cold, frozen field, 
amid the peltings of rain, sleet, and snow, the defenders of 
liberty must lie upon their arms : but not a murmur arose 
from their lips ; they were there to conquer or die. 

There was another council of war in the rebel fort. It 
was a time of terror and deep perplexity. We know the 
result. Floyd was too guilty a coward to share the fate 
of his companions in arms, and handed over the command 
to Pillow. Pillow remembered his base treachery, and, fear- 
ing the recoil of justice, passed over the command to Buck- 
ner, who had both the courage and discretion to share the 
fate of his brethren in rebellion. Floyd and Pillow made 
their escape with the men they could possibly smuggle away. 
Buckner sent a flag of truce to Grant to know his terms, 
and received for answer, " No terms other than unconditional 
and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to 
move immediately upon your works." Forgetting the sol- 
dier in his mortification, Buckner characterized the terms as 
" ungenerous and unchivalric," and accepted them. 

The battle of Fort Donelson was over. Nine thousand men 
surrendered at discretion, and the Union flag floated grace- 
fully over the fort. 

This was the Bull Eun of the West : it was more ; for it 
broke up the whole line of Confederate defences, saved Mis- 
souri, Kentucky, and a large part of Tennessee, from the 
power of rebellion, moved the usurped government of trea- 
son two hundred miles down the Mississippi, gave us Nash- 
ville, prepared the way for the grand and costly triumphs of 
Shiloh and Stone River, and, by its moral effects, took away 
courage from rebellion, and gave it to freedom. 

FORTS JACKSON AND ST. PHILIP. 

While the nation waited for the slow development of the 
plans of M'Clellan, at Washington active minds were busy 



526 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

with the question, What can be done in the mean time ? The 
West, as we have seen, answered by moving down the Mis- 
sissippi, and fighting the terrible but decisive battles of 
Donelson and Shiloh. One distinct meaning of all this 
was, that the great artery of Western trade must be opened 
to the Gulf. 

Gen. B. F. Butler believed that he could aid this great 
effort by troops from the East, and operations from the out- 
lets of the Mississippi. Encountering many and formidable 
difficulties, he was at length on Ship Island with thirteen 
thousand and seven hundred men. 

On the third day of February, 1862, Capt. David Glascoe 
Farragut sailed from Hampton Roads in "The Hartford." 
He had been appointed to command a powerful fleet which 
was to unite with Gen. Butler in an attempt to gain control 
of the Lower Mississippi. This fleet consisted of forty-seven 
armed vessels : eight of them were large steam sloops-of-war, 
seventeen heavily-armed steam gunboats, two sailing sloops- 
of-war, and twenty-one mortar-schooners. " The whole num- 
ber of guns and mortars was three hundred and ten, many 
of them very heavy and very good." * The secrecy with 
which these formidable land and naval forces had been 
directed created the most excited public interest. Various 
theories of their destination were intimated ; the North hop- 
ing; that something: would be done, and the South dreading 
the blow wherever it might fall. All doubt was at an end 
when Farragut and Butler met in consultation on Ship 
Island. 

The defences of New Orleans were such as to give plausi- 
bility to the popular idea, that they were absolutely invulner- 
able. Twiggs, of infamous Texas memory, had been supersed- 
ed by Major-Gen. Lovell, who had fully completed an interior 
line of fortifications, which were deemed secure against any 
force the United States could bring to bear upon them. In 
the extreme necessities of the Confederacy, however, the 

* Greeley, ii. 87, 88. 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 627 

troops and materials of war which Gen. Lovell, by great 
industry, had collected to make these works available, were 
ordered away to contend with Grant and Buell. Two large 
iron-clads, " The Louisiana " and " Mississippi," which the citi- 
zens of New Orleans thought were to sink any vessels of war 
which might by any means come within their reach, were 
not finished. The exterior line of defence, including Forts 
Jackson and St. Philip, seventy-five miles below New Or- 
leans, was made as strong as means within the power of the 
rebels would permit. A first formidable obstruction to the 
passage of our fleet having been washed away, another, less 
difficult to manage, was constructed of " eleven dismantled 
schooners, extending from bank to bank, strongly moored, 
and connected by six heavy chains." * 

Glancing now for a moment at New Orleans, we find the 
people given up to pleasure. With the utmost contempt for 
Northerners, they talked and laughed about the spectacle of 
a mad attack upon their invulnerable forts, which was about 
to add a new zest to their entertainments. Balls, parties, 
theatres, operas, and the like, were the incidents of every 
twenty-four hours. 

On the 16th of April, the American fleet moved up the 
river to attack the forts. As they neared the scene of the 
combat, they saw coming down upon them a huge fire-ship. 
With blazing wood and turpentine and tar, it threw its glare 
over the scene ; and, roaring with flame, it floated directly 
toward our fleet. Our men, it would seem, ought to have 
been stupefied with horror, as it moved on until its flames 
must, in a few moments, be communicated to our vessels of 
war. But there were no signs of panic : commands were 
coolly given and obeyed. A small company from " The Iro- 
quois " entered a row-boat, moved up fearlessly, and, grap- 
pling the ship of fire, towed it away to the bank, where it 
could burn itself out at leisure. 

On the morning of the 17th, we were within two and a 

* Pollard, p. 250. 



628 THE GREAT EEPFBUC. 

half miles of the forts ; and, at nine o'clock, the guns of Fort 
Jackson opened upon our fleet. Capt. Porter, in command 
of our mortar-vessels, directed the fire in response, and 
trained his guns, so that, by ten o'clock, their terrible mis- 
siles began to reach their object. Three more fire-rafts 
came menacingly down to consume our valuable ships ; but 
they were disposed of with the same coolness and bravery 
as the first. For a whole week, the roar of cannon and mor- 
tars told the frightful power of the combatants ; but the only 
apparent effect on the fort was an alarming fire from our hot 
shot, which threatened to consume every thing combustible 
it contained. The fire w\as, however, finally subdued. A 
change in the position of the fleet was necessary -, and, after 
a council of war, Capt. Farragut calmly decided that some, 
at least, of his vessels of war must pass the forts. " What- 
ever is to be done," he said, " must be done quickly. When, 
in the opinion of the flag-officers, the propitious time has 
arrived, the signal will be made to weigh, and advance to 
the conflict." An officer of a French vessel which had been 
up to the forts told Capt. Farragut that it was impossible to 
pass them. His reply was, "I am ordered to go to New 
Orleans, and I intend to go there." 

Farragut could depend upon the prompt obedience and 
extraordinary skill of his commanders and men. lie says, 
"Every vessel was as well prepared as the ingenuity of her 
commander and officers could suggest, both for the preser- 
vation of life and the vessels." 

Capt. Bell, with "The Pinola," "Itasca," "Iroquois," "Ken- 
nebec," and "Winona," had been despatched to perform 
the difficult task of cutting away the obstructions which the 
Confederates had established near the forts. A rocket from 
the fort gave our daring men a momentary light ; and, with 
chisels and hammers, they assaulted . the chains. A storm 
of shot and shell fell upon them : but they wrought on until 
the chains parted; and slowly the vessels swung around, 
leaving the channel clear. Three days after, a gallant recon- 



THE WAil OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 629 

nois:-!ance, and a gun fioiii " The Itasca," annoiincecl that the 
passage was still open. At two o'clock, the signal rose on 
the tlag-ship ; and the men promptly prepared for the dread- 
ful work before them. Some had slept quietly ; others had 
paced the decks with nervous anxiety ; but many of our 
men had been engaged in solemn prayer. 

"The Hartford," with the flag of Capt. Farragut, "The Rich- 
mond/' and "The Brooklyn," moved up close to the west bank, 
opening fire upon Fort Jackson as they advanced. " The Ca- 
yuga," "Pensacola," "Mississippi," "Oneida,"" Varuna," "Ka- 
tahdin," "Kineo," and " Wissahickon " passed close along the 
eastern shore, responding to the fire of Fort St. Philip. Capt. 
Bell, commanding a third line, consisting of " The Sciota," 
*• Iroquois," " Pinola," " Winona," " Itasca," and " Kennebec," 
moved between the two other divisions. The mortar-boats, 
under Capt. Porter, kept their position, and opened a new 
and most terrific fire upon the forts ; while " The Harriet 
Lane," " Westfield," " Owasco," "Clinton," "Miami," "The 
Jackson," and " The Portsmouth," attacked the water-battery 
below the fort. The roar of these o;uns, the rollino; thun- 
ders of the forts and batteries, the blazing- shells streaming 
in circles through the air, made the scene terribly sublime. 

Capt. Bailey, with " The Gayuga," first drew the fire of 
the forts as he passed through the opening in the obstruc- 
tions. He, however, ran close under the guns of Fort St. 
Philip, which received broadside after broadside of grape 
and canister as his whole line passed safely through this 
frightful gantlet. "The Pinola," "Sciota," and "Iroquois," 
of Capt. Bell's line, also rushed through unharmed. 

The most terrible destruction seemed to centre upon the 
flag-ship " Hartford." A frightful fire-ship came down, with 
the ram "Manassas" in its rear. Moving as if directed by an 
evil spirit, it came directly on toward "The Hartford." Far- 
ragut's guns kept up their fire as though no danger were 
near. Sheering a little, he avoided the fire-raft for a moment, 
poured in a most destructive broadside upon Fort Jackson, 



630 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

and ran aground. The fire-ship dashed against him, and in- 
stantly the rigging of " The Hartford " was in flames. At this 
awful moment, there was no disorder : the firemen turned 
the hose upon the flames; the engines tugged away, and 
moved the vessel from the ground ; the orders of Farragut 
were calm and imperious, and promptly obeyed ; the gun- 
ners served their guns, and fired as regularly as if they were 
out of harm ; the flames were subdued ; and the head of the 
noble ship was turned upward, and rushed by the forts. 
The terrible ram "Manassas" drove her huge iron beak furi- 
ously into the starboard gangway of "The Brooklyn," firing 
from her opened hatchway at the smoke-stack of the latter 
as she came up, whose bags of sand protected her smoke- 
pipe, and her ingenious chain-armor saved her hulk. The 
ram passed on, and " The Brooklyn " rushed up the stream. 
Still under the raking fire of Fort Jackson, she was furiously 
assailed by a large rebel steamer; but she hurled against her 
a heavy broadside, and sent her out of the fight. Next, 
abreast of Fort St. Philip, with only thirteen-feet soundings, 
she brought all her guns to bear, and poured in a storm of 
grape and canister that silenced the fort; while the men 
were seen from the masts of " The Brooklyn," by the blaze 
of her shells, running in terror for a place of safety.* 

The apparently impossible was achieved. Farragut's 
squadron had passed the forts, the rebel squadron was de- 
stroyed, and the great battle was over. The sequel of this 
naval engagement, which will ever be renowned in history, 
rapidly developed. Our vessels of war moved on to New 
Orleans, silencing every battery on their way. The scene 
in the city beggars all description. We have no pleasure 
in detailing the anguish and the rage of these misguided 
people. Their obstinacy and insolence, however unwise, 
were perfectly natural. The flag of rebellion was hauled 
down, and the stars and stripes waved in its place. The 
rebel army, under Lovell, had wisely left the city to the 

* See Greeley, ii. pp. 83-93 ; also Headley's Farragut, pp. 67-69. 



THE WAE OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 631 

mercy of its conquerors. Ships and cotton had become, by 
their own hands, blazing masses of fire on the water : their 
stores were consumed, or given up to pillage ; their forts 
were surrendered ; their costly munitions of war were de- 
stroyed or captured ; their capital was taken ; and the 
American fleet moved boldly up the Mississippi to be hailed 
with shouts of joy by the fleet from above. Europe saw 
that there was no safety in acknowledging the Confederacy. 



"the monitor" and "the MERRIMACK." 

In the ordinary materials of a navy, the Confederates could 
not rival the United States. It was, therefore, a just con- 
clusion upon their part, that, by at least one iron-clad, they 
must be made stronger than the Union at any given place 
or time. For this purpose, they raised our fine ship " Merri- 
mack," cut her down, and covered her with enormous plates 
of iron, weighing in all over seven hundred tons. They 
furnished her also with a strong cast-iron beak, designed to 
be driven furiously into the sides of our wooden vessels, and 
sink them. 

She was finished, and had received her battery of eight 
nine-inch Dahlgren, and four seven-and-a-half-inch Brooks 
rifle-guns, by the fifth day of March, 1862. 

At about one o'clock on the 8th, she was seen, in company 
with two gunboats, rounding Sewall's Point, and advancing 
toward Newport News. Her advent had been for some time 
expected and dreaded ; and, now that she actually appeared, 
all true hearts were moved with dread. 

Receivino; the terrific broadsides of " The Cono;ress " as 
she passed, without showing the least concern, she bore down 
upon " The Cumberland." The fire of both these brave ships 
w^as well delivered ; but their heavy shot glanced from the ar- 
mor of " The Merrimack," doing her no harm. Presently, with 
a full head of steam, she drove her strong beak into the side 
of " The Cumberland," and opened a chasm, through which 



632 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

the water rushed ; and she began at once to fill and settle. 
Her brave officers and men resolved never to strike her col- 
ors to the defiant rebel monitor ; and, firing broadside after 
broadside, they went down witli their colors flying. 

" The Congress " had been engaged by " The Jamestown " 
and " Yorktown," consorts of " The Merrimack;" and, attempt- 
ing to escape, she ran aground. She gallantly maintained 
the unequal fight until the crushing shot of '' The Merrhnack " 
had torn her almost literally to pieces, and she had taken fire 
in several places ; then, to save her wounded from the 
flames, she lowered her flag. 

" The Minnesota," " Roanoke," and " St. Lawrence," at- 
tempting to escape one after another, ran aground in water 
so shallow, that they could not be reached by the monster, 
or they w^ould have been destroyed with the utmost ease. 
Eveuinii- comins: on, "The Merrimack" with her two attend- 
ants turned her prow toward Norfolk. Her Confederate offi- 
cers and men, proud of her achievements, had no doubt of 
being able to finish the destruction of our squadron in the 
morning, and move on to New York if they pleased. The 
joy in Norfolk, and soon throughout the Confederacy, was 
unbounded, only equalled by the dismay and forebodings at 
Fortress Monroe and through the North. 

At eight o'clock that evening, a small, low, nondescript 
vessel made her appearance : it was Ericsson's " Monitor," 
commanded by Capt. John Lorimer Worden. But, seeing her 
diminutive size, the hearts of our brave officers and men 
sank within them. 

The night wore away ; and, early on the 9th of March, 
" The Merrimack " came out again. Moving deliberately 
toward " The Minnesota," she saw what, in derision, was 
termed a " Yankee cheese-box," steam directly up by her side. 

The great battle promptly began. The heavy shots of" The 
Merrimack" rolled harmless from the turret of "The Moni- 
tor ;" and her commander, amazed at the audacity of the little 
craft, and seeing that he could not penetrate her armor, 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 633 

dashed over her to crush and sink her : but this also foiled. 
In the mean time, a shot from " The Monitor " found way into 
the armor of " The Merrimack," and she began to leak. She 
turned suddenly, and hurled her missiles at '• The Minnesota " 
and " The Oregon ; " but " The Monitor " slipped in between 
her and her victims. Angry at this impertinence, gathering 
frightful momentum, she drove her beak fiercely at the little 
'• Monitor," and, shivering her own timbers, passed by, leaving 
only a dent in the armor of the mysterious, audacious little 
craft. After four hours' conflict, mortified and crippled, the 
monster rebel limped away ; and her career of destruction 
was ended. 

It is useless to attempt a description of the results of this 
great battle. The exultation passed from the rebels to the 
friends of the <i;overnment. Our surviving: naval heroes 
could only cheer, and offer thanks to God for their deliver- 
ance. The American people, and presently the world, knew 
that a complete revolution in naval warfare had been wrought, 
as it were, in a day. There are no limits to the effect of this 
grand historic triumph of liberty in Hampton Roads. 

But how came this mighty little stranger here at this 
precise juncture ? The genius and science of Ericsson had 
triumphed. The government had made a cautious contract 
with him ; and he had, with incredible energy, embodied his 
original elaborate thoughts in this little floating, masked, 
turreted battery. 

If, in his wandering search for patronage, France or Eng- 
land had seized this invention ; if the timid confidence of our 
government had been delayed a single day ; if there had 
been one particle less of executive ability in the great 
Swedish American ; if there had been one failure in mate- 
rial, or the adjustments of numerous parts of this wonderful 
combination of inventions constructed in so many different 
places ; finally, if the ocean had been wild and perilous, so as 
to have detained "The Monitor," — our squadron in Hampton 
Roads must have been utterly ruined, the blockade broken, 

80 



634 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

and our wooden ships everywhere dashed to pieces and 
sunk. But God superintended this .whole affair. All these 
contingencies were in his hand ; and every one of them 
obeyed his will to save a favored nation. 



THE PENINSULA. 

The winter had worn away; the early spring was rapidly 
passing; and the vast Army of the Potomac was still engaged 
in drilling in and around Washington. President Lincoln, 
who always acted for the people, ordered an advance. 

Gen. M'Clellan had under his immediate command about 
one hundred thousand men. With this splendid force he 
moved upon Yorktown; but not deeming it prudent to at- 
tack Magruder, who had only about seven thousand men in 
command, he " sat down " before the town, and " sent to 
Washington for siege guns." He continued thirty days in- 
trenching, and preparing to open fire upon the enemy's works 
by breaching batteries. He would have been ready by the 
6th of May; but, on the 4th, he discovered that there were no 
rebels there : Magruder had retreated, with the purpose of 
finding a better place for resistance. A prompt pursuit fol- 
lowed, under Gen. George D, Stoneman. Hooker, under com- 
mand of Heintzelman, reached the enemy's new position 
at Williamsburg, and, with characteristic impetuosity, ad- 
vanced at once to battle, intending to give him no time for 
preparation. Gen. J. E. Johnston, commander of the Confed- 
erate forces, had hastened his troops to meet Gen. M'Clellan 
and defend Richmond. Gen. Hooker was therefore confront- 
ed by Longstreet in force ; and a fierce and terrible con- 
flict ensued. By some strange oversight, this brave com- 
mander was left to contend against enormous odds for nine 
hours without re-enforcements. At length. Gen. Hancock, 
by order of Gen. Sumner, reached the enemy's left, and by a 
brilliant charge drove him from his position at the point of 
the bayonet. 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM, 635 

This desperate battle cost us fifteen hundred and seventy- 
five men in killed, wounded, and missing ; but it compelled 
the Confederates to retreat, leaving more than a thousand 
wounded on the field. 

Gen. Franklin's division had been sent by Gen. M'Clellan 
up York River to West Point. He was joined by Gen. Dana 
with a part of Gen. Sedgwick's division. After a severe 
engagement, the enemy, composed in part of Wade Hamp- 
ton's legion and Whiting's Texan division, withdrew. 

Gen. Stoneman now moved to open communication with 
Gen. Franklin. Gen. Smith's division followed on the direct 
road to Richmond. 

The Confederates, deeming Norfolk unsafe, abandoned it, 
blowing up and burning every thing that could be destroyed, 
includino; the renowned "Merrimack" and two other iron- 
clads unfinished. The city was surrendered to Gen. Wool 
by the civil authorities. 

Norfolk in our hands, and " The Merrimack " destroyed, our 
fleet, under command of Commodore Rogers, now moved up 
the James River to within eight miles of Richmond. This 
brought him immediately under the enemy's heavy guns at 
the famous Drury's Bluff, two hundred feet above the water, 
with the river obstructed by piles and vessels ; sharp-shooters 
and infantry in rifle-pits greatly increasing his danger. 
His men fought bravely, until the bursting of a hundred- 
pound Parrott on " The Naugatuck " added a new terror to 
the situation ; and the fleet moved down the river. 

M'Clellau's forces were now on the Chickahominy, a slug- 
gish stream passing through a miserable, sickly swamp. At 
New Bridge, on the 24th of May, the hostile forces came 
into collision. The battle was fierce ; but the triumph of the 
government forces compelled the retreat of the rebels, and 
removed the contest to Seven Pines or Fair Oaks, on the 
direct road to Richmond. 

On the 31st of May, at one o'clock, p.m., the bloody battle 
of Fair Oaks was initiated by an overwhelming attack 



636 THE GREAT REPUBLIC, 

from Gen. D. H. Hill's division on Gen. Casey, who was not 
quite prepared for it. Prodigies of valor were achieved by 
both sides on this dreadful field. Men fell, wounded and 
dying, or slain in heaps. Distinguished officers, in large num- 
bers, were sacrificed as of no value. The advantage was 
decidedly with the Confederates, until a quarter-past three 
o'clock, P.M., when Gen. Heintzelman's division came warmly 
into the battle. The rebel commander-in-chief fell danger- 
ously wounded. The command devolving upon Gen. G. W. 
Smith, he was suddenly paralyzed, and borne from the field. 
Jefierson Davis, in person, led a rebel charge to repel the 
advancing columns of the Republic. The spirited command 
of Gen. Sedgwick now came in between Heintzelman and 
Couch, and poured a torrent of canister from his twenty- 
four guns ; and Sedgwick, moving his columns gallantly for- 
ward, swept the field. Farther to the right the battle raged, 
where Gen. Abercrombie was fighting against overwhelming 
forces; and Gorman's brigade of Sedgwick's division moved 
promptly to his assistance : other regiments, under Gen. Burns, 
came up under a most destructive enfilading fire ; and, as they 
were in danger of being overwhelmed, the voice of Burns, 
'• Steady, men, steady ! " rolling along their ranks, was an- 
swered by cheer after cheer, and the rebels were checked. 
Farther still to our right the Confederate forces were hurled 
against our ranks, where Gens. Sumner, Sedgwick, Dana, 
Burns, and Gorman, with the greatest bravery and skill, com- 
manded our men. At eight o'clock, p.m., the rebels gave 
up the contest for the day, and left our forces in possession 
of the field. 

There was more fighting on the next day ; but the Confed- 
erates were not fierce and hopeful as before. It was the 
sequel of a great battle already decided. Neither party 
could crush the other; but the advantage was decidedly with 
us. M'Clellan's despatch to the War Department said, " The 
victory is complete, and all credit is due to our officers 
and men." 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 637 

Next morning, June 2, a bold reconnoissance by Gen. 
Hooker to within four miles of Richmond showed no enemy 
but pickets. 

Gen. Robert E. Lee was now in command of the Confed- 
erates, and had evidently resolved to collect all his forces 
to resist M'Clellan and save Richmond. June 25, we were 
vigorously attacked by A. P. Hill at Mechanicsville. D. P. 
Hill's and Longstreet's divisions came into action ; but our 
brave men repulsed them with dreadful slaughter. M'Call's 
reserves, who had never before been in battle, behaved with 
the courao'e and darino; of veterans. 

M'Clellan, perceiving that the enemy would soon be 
strongly re-enforced, withdrew our troops to what he deemed 
a better position. This order was obeyed at some risk, as 
our forces were compelled, while they were falling back, to 
resist furious onsets of the enemy. We were at length read}', 
and the terrible battle of Gaines's Mill immediately followed. 
Stonewall Jackson, generally supposed to be in the Shenan- 
doah Valley, at the most critical moment of the battle came 
on to the field with his splendid corps, and fell upon our 
right flank with the greatest fury. The carnage was dread- 
ful. After a long and brave resistance, overwhelmed by num- 
bers. Porter's infantry were compelled to fall back ; when 
he opened upon the Confederates with eighty cannon, and 
checked their advance. Cook charged their right flank with 
his cavalry, but was received with such a withering fire, 
that his horses became utterly unmanageable, and, by their 
wild movements, threw some of Porter's men into confu- 
sion. At this critical moment, French's and Meagher's men 
rushed with cheers to the front, and the enemy postponed 
the battle till morning. During the night, however, our 
forces were withdrawn across the Chickahominy. This 
movement enabled the enemy to claim a victory, and cost 
us the loss of our base of supplies, with enormous quantities 
of military stores. 

Durino; these contests, there was the "rreatest consternation 



638 THE GBEAT REPUBLIC. 

in Richmond. " The Confederate Congress had adjourned in 
such haste as to show that the members were anxious to pro- 
vide for their own personal safety. President Davis sent 
his family to North Carohna, and a part of the government 
archives were packed ready for transportation. At the rail- 
road depots were piles of baggage awaiting transportation ; 
and the trains were crowded with women and children, going 
to distant points in the country, and escaping from the alarm 
and distress in Richmond."* 

What must have been the surprise of the rebels, when the 
next morning, after the display of such bravery and strength, 
the Union army had commenced a most perilous retreat from 
the Chickahominy towards the James River ! The pursuit, 
at first cautious in the extreme, became a succession of most 
violent assaults from an army roused by all the moral effects 
of a great victory. At Malvern Hill, while two-thirds of his 
men were yet struggling to disengage themselves from the 
swamps of the Chickahominy and the furious attacks of the 
enemy, Gen. M'Clellari found it necessary to make a bold 
stand to save the Army of the Potomac from destruction. 

On the first day of July, Jackson moved on to the attack, 
with Whiting's division on his left, D. H. Hill's on the right, 
and Ewell's in the centre. Huger's and Magruder's men came 
up to join in the action, while Longstreet and A. P. Hill were 
held in reserve. The forces of D. H. Hill advanced against 
our right ; but they were swept down by a fire that no men 
could resist. Jackson sent his own division and a part of 
Ewell's to Hill's support ; but success on that part of the field 
was impossible. On our left, Magruder ordered fifteen thou- 
sand infantry to charge. " There was," says Pollard, " a run 
of more than six hundred yards up a rising ground, an un- 
broken flat beyond of several hundred yards, one hundred 
pieces of cannon behind breastworks, and heavy masses of 
infantry in support. The brigades advanced bravely across 
the open field, raked by the fire of the cannon and large 

* Pollard, p. 211. 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 639 

bodies of infantry. Some were broken, and gave way ; 
others approached close to the guns, driving back the in- 
fantry, compeUing the advanced batteries to retire to escape 
capture, and mingHng their dead with those of the enemy. 
To add to the horrors of the scene, and the immense 
slaughter in front of the batteries, the gunboats increased 
the rapidity of their broadsides ; and the immense missiles 
came through the air with great noise, tearing off the tree- 
tops, and bursting with loud explosions. Towards sunset, 
the concussion of artillery was terrific. The hill was clothed 
in sheets of flame ; shells rained athwart the horizon ; the 
blaze of the setting sun could scarcely be discerned through 
the canopy of smoke which floated from the surface of the 
plains and rivers. Piles of dead lay thick, close to the 
enemy's batteries ; and the baleful fires of death yet blazed 
among the trees, where our shattered columns had sought an 
imperfect cover behind the slight curtain of the fort." Night 
came on to stop this dreadful carnage. The rebels retired, 
feeling that they had not strength enough left for what they 
had hoped would be a grand final triumph. They had failed 
in their brilliant charge, and innumerable fugitives carried dis- 
may to Richmond. Our right was unbroken. We had gained 
a great victory, and yet Gen. M'Clellan fled from it as from a 
crushing defeat. The rebel brigadier-general J. R. Tremble 
says, " The next morning, by dawn, I went off to ask for 
orders, when I found the whole army in the utmost disorder ; 
thousands of straggling men, asking every passer-by for their 
regiment; ambulances, wagons, and artillery obstructing 
every road ; and altogether, in a drenching rain, presenting 
a scene of the most woful and disheartening confusion." 

Just when our splendid troops, with spirits still unbroken, 
were expecting every moment to receive the order to 
advance through these shattered rebel forces to Richmond, 
which was now so nearly helpless at their feet, they were 
ordered to retreat. It was too much to be.^.r. Some cursing, 
and gnashing their teeth with rage, others weeping with 



640 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

disappointment, these noble men were hurried away to seek a 
place of safety, leaving multitudes of their dead and wounded 
to the care of the enemy. 

For three months of excessive caution, these heroic men 
had fought their way up to within four miles of Richmond, 
during which the Confederates had every opportunity to rally 
all their men, and prepare for the conflict ; and they had used 
it with the utmost industry and skill. After one continuous 
battle, lasting seven days, during which they had suffered in- 
credible hardships, amid the carnage of battle-fields and the 
mire and miasma of the swamps, and seen more than fifteen 
thousand of their brave comrades slaughtered, wounded, or 
captured, they had at length wrenched victory from the 
grasp of their deadly enemies, and were yet eighty-six thou- 
sand men of unfaltering courage and unconquerable prowess; 
but they were now to leave their fields of heroic daring in 
disgrace ! Never was obedience a sterner test of loyalty ; 
but they obeyed. The campaign of the Peninsula was over ; 
and our enraged, dispirited army must haste to unite with 
Pope's command to save Washington. 

Cedar Mountain, and " the second Bull Run" as it is com- 
monly called, followed not long after ; and, while men and 
parties differed as to the responsibility, the disgrace came 
upon the nation to heighten the dissatisfaction with the con- 
duct of the war. 

Why were all these disasters ? Why did not our brave 
and superb army of the Potomac capture the rebel capital ? 
Why, instead, must our own capital be menaced in conse- 
quence of disgraceful defeat, when our forces were apparent- 
ly strong enough to achieve victory ? By many it will be 
answered, they were not well commanded ; by others, that 
they were not properly re-enforced, and were attempting 
impossibilities. Only one answer, however, can be final. 
The nation was not yet ready to do justice. If we had 
closed the war then, there would have been no proclamation 
of liberty. 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. ^41 

ANTIETAM. 

The Confederate idea of carrying the war into the North 
had been delayed much longer than was intended ; but the 
result of M'Clellan's Peninsular campaign, and Pope's defeat 
at " the second Bull Run," determined this question. On 
the first day of September, Gen. Lee, with a large por- 
tion of the Army of Virginia, moved towards Maryland : 
on the Gth he was in Frederick City, from which he 
marched his aggres.sive force to the severe defeat of South 
Mountain. 

On the 16th, these old antagonists, M'Clellan and Lee, 
with large armies, met on the field of Antietam. The im- 
petuous Hooker hurled his brave division against the veter- 
ans of Stonewall Jackson, and compelled them, after a 
dreadful conflict, to recede from their position. Early came 
forward to replace Jackson's division, which, however, un- 
subdued, would soon re-appear on the field. Rickett and 
Meade now moved forward with spirit, and drove back the 
rebel lines. Hood's division, which had disappeared, came 
up again with great energy. Doubleday's " best brigade " 
moved forward in double-quick, and seized the crest of 
the hill. Their brave commander, HartsufF, fell, severely 
wounded ; but they held this critical point alone for half an 
hour. Rickett's division marched boldly to this centre, but 
recoiled from the terrific fire of the foe. Mansfield came to 
their help, but was driven back. On our right, Doubleday's 
guns destroyed a rebel battery. Rickett's men rallied and 
stood firm, but were not able to advance. Hooker brought 
up Crawford's and Gordon's brigades and Mansfield's troops 
to his aid, and commenced a forward movement, to carry the 
woods; but, receiving a severe wound, was compelled to 
retire from the field. Sumner, now in command here, 
brought up to the bloody cornfield Sedgwick's division of 
his own corps. The rebel M'Laws, after a severe night's 
march, moved into the field to the support of Jackson, and," 



642 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

with Walker's and Early's divisions, assailed our brave men 
with dreadful energy, and retook the cornfield, t)ut re- 
coiled from the murderous fire of our batteries. Franklin, 
with his fresh troops, now appeared in the battle. He 
sent Slocum to the centre, and ordered Smith to retake the 
contested ground. Rushing suddenly upon the rebels, they 
were swept from the field, which theieafter remained in our 
hands. 

For four dreadful hours, French's division of Sumner's 
corps withstood the onsets of the Confederates, having 
gained an advanced position at the close of the day. Rich- 
ardson's division of the same corps came into action, the 
Irish brigades being conspicuous for gallant and fearless bear- 
ing. The enemy now attempted to turn, first the left, and 
then the right, of this division, but were repulsed with heavy 
loss. They then charged with desperation upon the centre, 
but were hurled back with great slaughter. The brave 
Gen. Richardson fell, and Hancock took his place. Fur- 
ther attempts of the rebels showed that they had been seri- 
ously weakened by their losses ; and the night closed the 
action here, leaving the advantage with us. 

In the afternoon, M'Clellan ordered up a large number of 
Porter's corps, held till then in reserve. Burn side, now re- 
enforced, charged across the bridge and up the hill, and 
took the heights. A. P. Hill's division, coming up fresh 
from Harper's Ferry, rushed upon our ranks, now disor- 
dered by victory, and hurled them back ; but, recoiling from 
the terrific fire of our batteries, they made no attempt to 
cross the bridge. The lion-hearted Jackson, after recon- 
noitring, declined the attempt to obey the orders of Lee to 
turn our right, and wrench a victory from the firm, deter- 
mined ranks of our bleeding freemen. So closed, indeci- 
sively, " the bloodiest day that America ever saw." * More 
than eighty-seven thousand Union men and at least sixty 
thousand Confederates entered the field; while the num- 

* Greeley, ii. 211. 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 643 

bers, courage, and skill of the forces actually engaged were 
so nearly balanced, that a decisive victory was impossible. 
Some twenty thousand Americans on both sides fell that 
day, bleeding or dead. The Confederates fled from Mary- 
land, and sought refuge beyond the lines. 



VICKSBDRG. 

Let us now return to the West. There we find our brave 
freemen still struggling to remove rebel obstructions to the 
navigation of the Mississippi. The rebel flag yet floated 
over Vicksburg and Port Hudson. 

Farragut and Porter moved up the river. The noble fleet 
came down from above, under Flag-officer Davis, successor 
to the gallant Foote. A portion of Farragut's squadron shot 
by the blazing, roaring batteries; and the North-west and 
the East shook hands on the great Mississippi. On the 27th 
of June, a most terrific bombardment commenced. The 
brave fleet "steaming up stream, in front of the city, the 
gunboats delivered broadside after broadside at the batteries, 
while the mortar-ketches from below filled the air with 
bombs." For eighteen days, this storm of fire and iron hail 
fell upon " The Queen City of the Bluffs " and its formidable 
batteries, to be answered only by belching flames and frown- 
ing defiance. At length, an ugly ram, — " The Arkansas," — 
mailed and fearless, came out, and showed power to trample 
down our frailer wooden crafts. Farragut, too wise and 
brave to risk his noble fleet, shot down the river; and 
" Vicksburg ! " was shouted by ten thousand voices, as " the 
Gibraltar of the Confederacy." 

The problem of Vicksburg now came back upon Grant 
and his army of Western heroes. For one whole year, this 
cool, great mind struggled with this problem ; much of the 
time in the midst of disasters and difficulties which would 
have overwhelmed almost any other man. But the Great 
Republic, at length, had found her man. The dashing, chiv- 



644 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

alrous commander of Donelson was as calm and patient as 
he was eneraretic and darino-. 

He had made five desperate attempts to reach the rear of 
Vicksburg, and failed : the sixth was now resolved upon. 
It would have been earlier adopted ; but it was so perilous, 
that Gen. Grant had deemed it his duty to try every possible 
method involving less of hazard to his army. 

On the 29th of March, 1863, Gen. M^Clernand's corps, fol- 
lowed as soon as possible by ammunition and provisions and 
by M'Pherson's corps, moved across the country, thirty-five 
miles from Milliken's Bond, to a point below New Carthage. 
Admiral Porter ran the gantlet of the batteries, and, with 
several vessels and transports, reached the place of rendez- 
vous. On the 30th of April, the troops were quietly ferried 
over the river, opposite Bruinsburg. In the mean time, 
Sherman made a very pretentious demonstration towards 
Haynes's Bluff, which so far deceived the Confederates 
as to call off attention from Grant and his movements 
below. At the right time, however, he disappeared from 
the menaced point, and moved rapidly on to Grant's line. 
May 1, M'Clernand's corps, and Logan's division of M'Pher- 
son's, fought the spirited battle of Port Gibson, with five 
thousand rebels under Gen. Bowen, and beat them, both 
parties losing heavily. 

Gen. J. E. Johnston was now commander-in-chief of the 
rebel armies of the West ; and he, understanding the power 
of his antagonist, was gathering forces at Jackson, the capi- 
tal of Mississippi, to resist his advance. But Grant's forces 
were there before he was prepared ; and, having no chance 
of successful resistance, he retired. Gen. Sherman promptly 
destroyed railroad bridges and military stores, and moved 
on after Grant, who had suddenly faced about, and was on 
the rapid march towards Vicksburg. 

Gen. Pemberton, the rebel commander of this stronghold, 
thought the whole Confederacy depended upon it, and, dis- 
obeying the orders of Johnston to evacuate it and save his 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 645 

army, sent a strong force to strike what be supposed to be 
Grant's line of communications. But Grant bad no commu- 
nications. He bad boldly swung loose from bis base of 
supplies at Grand Gulf, and moved out fearlessly into the 
enemy's territory, to fight bis men, and compel him to feed 
bis army. Finding bis mistake when it was too late, Pem- 
berton sought to retiu^n, without a battle, to the defences of 
Vicksburg ; but the movements of the Union troops were too 
rapid to allow it. Finding Grant's men moving up to Ed- 
ward's Station, be was compelled to form in order of battle 
on Champion Hills. Tbis was " a position of great natural 
strength," and the conflict was very severe. It is frightful 
to think of the result if Grant had been crushed that day 
between the forces of Pemberton and Johnston : but Gen. 
Johnston could not organize a sufficient force, and repair 
the track of war, in time to come into this decisive action ; 
and Pemberton was overthrown. His scattered forces, rush- 
ing to their fortifications, carried dismay to the citizens of 
Vicksburg, whose hope bad been strong that Gen, Grant and 
his forces would meet their destruction in their desperate 
attempts to reach the rear of their city. 

The last obstacle to the advance of the conqueror was 
swept away ; and, just eighteen days from the crossing of 
the Mississippi, he moved up to a position near the fortifi- 
cations of Vicksburg. 

It was the 10th of May when the doomed city was fully 
invested. Then brave and desperate assaults, mines and 
counter-mines, thundering cannonades, bursting shells, and 
storming canister, followed each other in terrific violence, 
until the morning of the glorious 4th of July; when the 
suffering garrison stacked their arms, and twenty-seven 
thousand Confederates surrendered to the veteran com- 
mander who that day grandly represented the calm, irre- 
sistible power of the Great Republic. Three days after, as 
a legitimate sequence, Port Hudson was surrendered to Gen. 
Banks, and the solemn pledges of the West had been fidly 



646 THE GREAT EEPUBLIC. 

redeemed : the great Mississippi was open, from its source 
to the Gulf. 

FREDERICKSBURG. 

Gen. Burnside now commanded the Army of the Poto- 
mac. He had not coveted this heavy responsibihty. It 
was forced upon him when the government was literally 
and painfully searching for a man. 

He resolved upon the direct line to Richmond, through 
Fredericksburg. His intentions were too soon ascertained 
by his antagonist, Gen. Lee. His advance reached Fal- 
mouth, on the Rappahannock, opposite Fredericksburg, too 
late for a surprise. There was a further most unfortunate 
delay in the arrival of pontoons for crossing his army. This 
enabled the Confederates to make ample preparations to 
receive their assailants. 

The town, lying directly under our guns, was at our 
mercy ; but Marye's Heights, in its rear, with formidable 
defences, was to be the principal scene of the bloody strife. 
On the night of the 11th and 12th of December, our pon- 
toons, laid amid storms of rebel missiles costing us three 
hundred men, were deemed practicable ; and our brave 
troops began to rush over. To drive in the enemy's ad- 
vance, and clear the town, was but a brief work. Opposite 
Franklin's corps of forty thousand men, on our left, behind 
the strongest defences, lay Stonewall Jackson, with his veter- 
ans, his left commanded by A. P. Hill. Opposite the superb 
divisions of Hooker and Sumner, numbering sixty thousand, 
was Longstreet, whose men, with Jackson's, brought the 
rebel army up to about eighty thousand. 

At precisely this moment it should have been seen that 
an attack upon Marye's Heights, against formidable walls, 
and in the face of three hundred cannon raking every inch 
of our ground, with eighty thousand brave men, skilfully 
commanded, in the rear, was impracticable. The army 
shoul4 have been promptly and quietly withdrawn during 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 647 

the night, and an attempt made to turn the enemy's posi- 
tion ; but Gen. Burnside dreaded more the moral effect, 
upon the minds of an irritated nation, of a retrograde move- 
ment, than he did the cannons and breastworks of Lee. 

Couch's division, under cover of a dense fog, formed for 
the assault. Brave and noble men they were ! When the 
sun came up and dispelled the mist, they obeyed the order, 
and moved up to be swept down by the storm of death from 
rebel guns. There was no flinching, no hesitancy. On 
they pressed, sublimely rising above the fear of death, and 
seemed almost ready to triumph ; when they dashed against 
a solid stone wall, from behind which the guns of the rebels 
poured destruction into their ranks. They could by no 
possible exertions advance farther, but stood firmly up to 
the dreadful slaughter. At length, when two-thirds of their 
number had fallen, the bleeding, staggering survivors were 
led away, for others, equally brave, to take their places. 
Rank after rank, during all that long and dreadful day, our 
men, some of them fresh recruits who had never seen a 
battle, were led up to that stone wall to be swept down like 
grass, and with no hopes of success. 

Franklin, on the left, came into action too late for deci- 
sive effect ; but, defying death, his men rushed against rebel 
columns and defences. Commanded immediately by Rey- 
nolds and Bayard, they went into action to conquer or die. 
Meade's division, and a large number of Hooker's, re-en- 
forced these struggling heroes, and fought with the utmost 
gallantry. Portions of A. P. Hill's rebel corps were over- 
powered and separated by their dreadful energy; and two 
hundred prisoners were taken. Here, as success seemed to 
be just at hand, the fresh troops of Early and D. H. Hill 
rushed to the front. They had marched all night from Port 
Royal, and came up in time to turn the scale against us. 

The carnage of that dreadful day defies all description. 
It was the same everywhere ; moving on calmly, or rushing 
impetuously ; falling, dead and wounded together, in writh- 



648 THE GEEAT EEPUBLIC. 

ing, gory piles of martyrs to liberty. Fifteen thousand men, 
as brave as ever marched to the field of death, had fallen, 
dead or wounded, or were prisoners, reserved for a harder 
fate. 

The next morning, Burnside was determined to make 
another assault: but the stern remonstrance of Sumner, 
sustained by other commanders, controlled his desperate 
purpose ; and, after facing his antagonist for two days, he 
withdrew his forces across the river, the keenest sufferer of 
all the suffering millions upon whose ears the news of that 
day's disaster fell. 

Burnside, a brave soldier, a noble man, and a good division 
commander, was relieved by Hooker. Bold, dashing, irre- 
sistible in command of forces which he could fairly wield, 
Hooker was, nevertheless, quite inadequate to the respon- 
sibilities of commanding a vast aggressive army. The par- 
tial successes and ultimate failure of Chancellorsville fol- 
lowed Fredericksburg ; and the scene of conflict changed. 



GETTYSBURG. 

In the- judgment of Lee and the Confederate authorities 
at Richmond, the time had now fully come to advance in 
earnest into the territory of freedom. The Union forces had 
just been twice beaten, and must be supposed to be greatly 
demoralized. The time of considerable numbers of men 
had expired, and they were mustered out. The anxious 
politicians of France and England, making nothing of South 
Mountain and Antietam, and turning their eyes from the 
West, argued from the Peninsular campaign, and from Fred- 
ericksburg and Chancellorsville, that the grand catastrophe 
of the Great Republic was at hand ; and it is probable that 
rebel emissaries near their courts had reason for saying that 
a bold and successful advance into the North would be fol- 
lowed by a recognition of the Confederacy. The rebel army 
was in the highest spirits, and believed it was absolutely in- 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 649 

vincible. These brave and desperate men longed to com- 
mence their proud march through the fields of rich and 
abundant supplies, for the destruction of Philadelphia, Balti- 
more, and Washington ; and even New York and Boston 
seemed to them to be within the reach of their irresistible 
power. 

Immense preparations had been made for the grand inva- 
sion. During the first days of June, this movement com- 
menced. Soon Hooker, who was on the alert, found Lee's 
advance at Culpeper. Presently he was pouring troops 
through the Shenandoah Valley. Ewell dashed across into 
Maryland, and, as the van of a large army of invasion, pro- 
duced the o-reatest alarm, extendinsj; throug^h Pennsvlvania 
into the North. Hooker did not dare to uncover Washing- 
ton until Lee left the Shenandoah Valley. The Confederate 
general had thus ample time to bring up his forces ; 
and, by the 24tli of June, he was ready to follow Ewell 
across the Potomac. Ewell was already in Pennsylvania : 
Chambersburg and Carlisle had been entered in triumph ; 
and Harrisburg, the capital, was menaced by his advance. 
Hanover and York were soon reached by other rebel forces. 

In the mean time, under the prompt orders of Gov. Cur- 
tin, the hardy sons of Pennsylvania were rallying to the 
defence of their noble State. At Harrisburg and at Colum- 
bia, they were gathering to dispute the passage of the Sus- 
quehanna and the rebel advance on Philadelphia. 

The Army of the Potomac showed the unconquerable 
spirit of the North. Re-organized, and strengthened by re- 
cruits moving to the front at the call of their beloved Pres- 
ident, Hooker was soon at Frederick, Md., with a powerful 
force, making demonstrations tow^ards Lee's communications 
at Harper's Ferry. Lee's advance upon Harrisburg was now 
arrested. The army of the United States, he discovered, 
was not, as he had supposed, broken and powerless, hovering 
about the defences of Washington to preserve its existence, 
but a strong, active force, too formidable to be left in his rear. 



650 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

A retreat was not to be thought of. The moral effect upon 
his proud army of invasion, and on his own reputation, would 
be perilous in the extreme : besides, it was too late ; a great 
battle was inevitable. He wisely called in his troops, and 
beg;an to threaten our communications. Hooker asked Gen, 
Halleck, now commander-in-chief at Washington, for ten thou- 
sand troops at Harper's Ferry to join with Slocum's corps, 
and make a vigorous demonstration in the rear of the rebel 
force. Being refused, he resigned ; and our government again 
tried the perilous experiment of a change of commanders 
on the eve of a orreat and decisive battle. Gen. G. G. Meade 
was advanced to the command. Greatly surprised, he, how- 
ever, acted promptly. On the 29th of June, he issued his 
orders, and moved his army from Fredericksburg, deter- 
mined to give battle. 

The two armies, marching at right angles, came unexpect- 
edly into collision at Gettysburg. Gen. Meade had selected 
his battle-field on Pipe Creek. Gen. Lee had resolved to 
wait for an attack. But Providence selected the field: and 
it was well ; for, to all human appearance, the future of the 
armies, and perhaps of the nation, depended upon it. 

On the morning of the 1st of July, a Union force of cav- 
alry, under Buford, was reported as being in Gettysburg. 
Gen. A. P. Hill moved up with two divisions of his corps to 
drive Buford away. Hill attacked at once, but found him- 
self dealing with a strong, wily antagonist. Buford kept his 
forces active, but chiefly in reserve; until, at about ten o'clock, 
A.M., as he expected, the head of Reynolds's column appeared, 
commanded by the gallant Wads worth. Without waiting 
for orders, he resolved to aid and relieve Buford. He moved 
to the rear of the town, beyond Seminary Ridge, and was 
attacked before he had time to form a line, and with but 
one brigade and a single battery at command. The brave 
and daring Gen. Reynolds ordered his men to charge ; when 
he was struck by a rebel bullet, and fell, mortally wounded. 
His heroic command, energized rather than disheartened 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 651 

by this great disaster, rushed forward with such impetuosity 
as to sweep every thing before them ; taking the whole rebel 
brigade, including their commander, prisoners. At this mo- 
ment, Davis's Mississippi brigade appeared on the right, rush- 
ing for our only battery ; but they were overwhelmed, and 
also taken prisoners. Doubleday's and Robinson's divisions 
of our first corps, and Pender's rebel division, now reached 
the field ; and the battle raged with still greater fury. At 
noon, the gallant first corps, greatly diminished by the 
numbers of their slain, stood firm ; and the Union troops 
had thus far been superior to their assailants. At one, p.m., 
Howard came up with our eleventh corps, and moved to 
the west and north of Gettysburg. Jackson's veterans, now 
commanded by Ewell, marched rapidly up from the Susque- 
hanna, and, seizing a superior position, broke through the 
weak centre of the extended Union line, and took five thou- 
sand prisoners. 

It was not till late in the afternoon that Gen. Meade re- 
ceived intelligence of the battle in progress and the death 
of Gen. Reynolds. He ordered Gen. Hancock to Gettys- 
burg to survey the field, and report. This brave man ar- 
rived just in time to meet the fugitives from our great dis- 
aster, with the Confederates in hot pursuit. He assisted our 
noble Gen. Howard in rallying the troops and forming a 
new line of battle, presenting so firm a front as to induce 
the Confederate commander to pause. Night came on, and 
we were not destroyed. 

Meade, perceiving that the field of the great battle had 
been deterniined for him, ordered his main army to march ; 
and all night these brave men pressed forward, so that, in the 
morning, all but the sixth corps had reached their positions. 
On the morning of the 2d, Lee saw that he was in the 
midst of a great battle, which, entirely contrary to his in- 
tentions, had been brought on by his own troops. God, 
and not the great commanders, controlled events that day. 

Gen. Lee determined upon his order of battle. Ewell 



C52 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

moved against our right on Gulp's Hill, occupied by the 
twelfth corps and Wadsworth's division of the first. Gen. 
Hill threatened our centre on Gemetery Hill, where the 
eleventh corps stood by the side of Robinson's and Double- 
day's divisions of the first, connecting with Hancock's sec- 
ond corps. But the principal attack was to be delivered by 
Longstreet upon our left under Gen. Sickles, who, instead 
of making firm connection with Hancock's left, as Gen. 
Meade expected, had thrown his right half or three-quarters 
of a mile forward of Hancock's flank. At four o'clock, Long;- 
street's forces moved boldly upon our left, which, exposed by 
the peculiar position of Sickles's corps, could not resist the 
shock. Fighting desperately, we were flanked and broken ; 
and the Confederates, rushing up the ravine with exultant 
shouts to seize Little Round Top, the key of the position, 
met Vincent's brigades, which grappled with them in 
fierce conflict. Woods's brigade re-enforced Vincent. Both 
these brave men fell amid the dreadful carnage ; but, by the 
death-struggles of these two heiroic brigades, the position 
was saved. In the mean time, Longstreet's right advanced 
with great intrepidity, enveloping Sickles's left ; Birney's 
division was compromised, and driven over the ridge ; Sic- 
kles was borne from the field, severely wounded. Humphrey's 
division, handled with consummate skill, and fighting des- 
perately, gained the crest, and fi^rmed bravely and defiantly, 
with only three thousand men. Hancock promptly re-en- 
forced him ; and the Gonfederates, exhausted, recoiled from 
a fire too severe for their stren«;tli or couraare. 

Terrific battles raged on Humphrey's left. There Barnes's 
division went down, and Galdwell's division lost half their 
number. Ayers's regulars rushed in : but the Gonfederates 
were soon thundering at their flank and rear ; and they 
bravely cut their wa^^ through to Little Round Top, leaving 
nothing to protect our centre. The Gonfederates moved up 
with the hope of completing their triumph, but saw sud- 
denly before them the unbroken ranks of the fifth and 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. G53 

sixth corps. They hesitated ; and Crawford's division of 
Pennsylvania reserves moved down upon them with such 
fury, that they fell back, and adjourned the conflict till 
another night should pass. These heroic Confederates slept 
on their arms in the wheat-field. 

At six o'clock, P.M., Ewell formed Jackson's veterans in 
two columns, — one attacking Cemetery Hill; the other, 
Gulp's Hill. So many of our forces had been removed from 
Culp's Hill, that Ewell's troops easily entered our works, 
and remained for the night. Early's brigades swept away 
such portions of the ill-fated eleventh corps as remained, 
and gained a foothold on Cemetery Hill within our works ; 
but the brave resistance of our artillerists, and the rapid and 
powerful advance by Carroll's brigade of the second, hurled 
them back, and the battle of the 2d of July was closed. 

On the 3d of July, Lee made his last terrible assault 
upon the Union forces on the heights of Gettysburg. He 
determined upon a grand cannonade and charge by Long- 
street's corps, and expected great assistance from Ewell 
against our right, who retained and re-enforced his impor- 
tant position on Culp's Hill ; but, before daylight, Gen. 
Meade hurled the twelfth corps upon Ewell's advance, and 
by successive struggles, lasting till near noon, drove his men 
from the invaluable position they had left on the afternoon 
of the 2d to aid their strug-o-ling brethren in arms. 

At one o'clock, p.m., a hundred and fifty-five rebel cannon 
opened their terrific fire upon our ranks of embattled free- 
men ; and for three dreadful hours this frightful cannonade 
continued. Eighty Union guns replied from Cemetery Ridge 
and Cemetery Hill, producing, in grandeur of display, " the 
greatest artillery combat that ever occurred on this conti- 
nent." But prudent energy and military science had pro- 
tected our men, so that the casualties from the rebel guns 
were comparatively few. 

At three o'clock, p.m., Pickett's assaulting columns, number- 
ing, with their supports, about eighteen thousand superb 



654 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

veterans, moved slowly and steadily out from the front of 
Seminary Ridge. Our wise artillery commander had econo- 
mized ammunition and strength ; and, at precisely the right 
moment, he poured into them a fire so destructive, that per- 
fect order seemed a physical impossibility. Pickett's left sup- 
porting division, under Heath, staggered, and fell back : his 
right supporting column, writhing in death-agonies, fell in 
the rear. On, on, came the calm, dreadful columns, clos- 
ing up their ranks, as heavy missiles from Union cannon 
ploughed through them. 

Our infantrj^ reserved their fire until these heroic men 
had reached almost to Hancock's front. Suddenly a storm 
of bullets from Stanard's brigade fell upon their right ; then 
a withering fire from the divisions of Gibbon and Hays, with 
canister from Woodruff's battery. At this point, the Con- 
federates responded ; but they were swept down in numbers 
so appalling, that they broke and fled ; and fifteen hundred 
men, with their colors, rushed for safety to the ranks of our 
grim warriors, and surrendered. 

The right of the attacking column was assailed with so 
deadly a fire from Hall's and Harrow's brigades and the 
brave Green-mountain regiments, that they fell into the cen- 
tre. Still Pickett sternly held his assaulting column to its 
dreadful task, and hurled his men against the brigade of 
Gen. Webb, which, for the moment, seemed to give way ; 
and daring rebels leaped our breastworks, and terrible hand- 
to-hand death-struggles ensued. Col. Devereux, of the Nine- 
teenth Massachusetts, begged permission of Gen. Hancock 
to lead his men into the very centre of this destructive 
conflict; and it was granted. Col. Mallon's Forty-second 
New-York was ordered up with him, and Harrow's brigade 
followed. Our colors waved in the breach ; the rebels fell 
in heaps of dead and wounded ; the survivors broke and fled 
in dismay, or surrendered to our brave men ; and the victory 
was ours. 

The srlorious 4th witnessed the retreat of Lee's shattered 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 655 

columns from the field of Gettysburg, and the surren- 
der of Vicksburg to Grant. A day of loftier triumph had 
never shone upon the Great Republic. 



SHENANDOAH VALLEY. 

This fine portion of Virginia was destined to be the scene 
of almost innumerable conflicts. Here the renowned Stone- 
wall Jackson met Shields, and recoiled from his terrible 
blows ; then, moving swiftly to meet Fremont, fell suddenly 
upon Kenerly, and crushed him ; drove Banks from Stras- 
burg, and delivered battle at Winchester ; failed to destroy 
seven thousand men, or even capture their principal trains, 
with twenty thousand victorious veterans ; compelled the 
President to call off M'Dowell's troops from re-enforcing 
M'Clellan on the Peninsula ; fought and retreated by turns ; 
eluded his gathering pursuers by the celerity of his move- 
ments ; and, when he was expected to dash into Washington, 
suddenly fell upon our forces in death-struggles on the Chick- 
ahominy. 

In this valley, the chivalrous Sheridan struck, with stun- 
ning blows, the reckless Early, fighting him desperately and 
beating him at Opequan, then, two days later, at Fisher's 
Hill. 

Sheridan, having chased his antagonist out of the val- 
ley, dashed through its principal towns as far as Staunton, and 
destroyed railroads, forage, and every thing else that could 
sustain a rebel army, made a flying visit to Washington. 
Early, informed of this, resolved to make a desperate effort 
during his absence to retrieve his fortunes. He made a hasty 
night-marcli, and, just at break of day, fell upon our un- 
suspecting troops at Cedar Creek; killing, scattering, and 
taking them prisoners, almost without resistance. All efforts 
to rally our flying men were useless : everj^ brigade rushing 
up to stay the tide was overwhelmed. The rebels seized our 
camp and provisions, taking twenty-four guns and twelve 
hundred prisoners. 



656 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

Sheridan, on his return from Washington, had slept at 
Winchester. Rumors threw him early into the saddle. 
Riding rapidly south, he learned the news of his disaster, 
and then met the fugitives of his beaten army. Address- 
ing words of encouragement to them in the most pleasant 
and assured manner, and deliberately re-forming his lines, 
he ordered an attack, which, after a dreadful struggle, over- 
whelmed the rebels, restored our guns and many of our 
prisoners, and virtually destroyed Gen. Early's army. 



LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN. 

Gen. Rosecrans, with his brave Western men, had defeated 
Price at Iiika, Van Dorn at Corinth, and Bragg (after four 
days' hard fighting) at Stone River. He fought his way to 
Chattanooga, the key to a campaign against the rebels of 
Georgia. After a desperate and disastrous engagement at 
Chickamauga, he was superseded, and resigned his immediate 
command into the hands of Gen. George H. Thomas, whose 
almost incredible skill and energy saved our army from 
destruction on that field of slaughter. 

Gen. Burnside now appeared in East Tennessee, where the 
old Hag was hailed with tears and shouts of joy by multi- 
tudes, who, in the midst of unparalleled suffering, had pre- 
served their patriotism unimpaired since the beginning of 
the war. 

Gen. Grant was now appointed to the command of our 
forces in the West. Our army was in distress at Chattanoo- 
ga, with scanty subsistence, and their long communications 
in the greatest peril. The eleventh and twelfth corps, 
under Hooker, were ordered to re-enforce Grant ; and twenty 
thousand men were moved from the Rapidan to the Tennes- 
see in eight days. It was a special Providence. Our com- 
munications had been cut, and millions in supplies destroyed, 
for which our brave men were nearly starving. Bragg felt 
certain of completing the victory of Chickamauga. 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 657 

At this critical moment, Grant arrived. He made his 
dispositions promptly to open up a shorter line of supplies, 
and connect Chattanooga with Hooker's command at Wau- 
hatchie. Hazen, with eighteen hundred men of Brig.-Gen. 
Smith's division, dropped quietly down the river on pontoon- 
boats, passing the rebel pickets, and constructing a bridge 
for the passage of our army ; Smith moved down with the 
balance of his four thousand men ; and Bras-cr awoke on 
the morning of the 28th to find the heights rising up 
from Lookout Valle}^ in our possession. We were, moreover, 
safe from famine, as our supplies now reached us by eight 
miles of wagon-road, instead of twenty-eight over a fright- 
ful mountain-road as before. Soon the astonished rebels saw 
the head of Hooker's columns winding through the mountain 
gorges. These effective forces, so far as they knew, were far 
below Washington on the Rapidan ; but now they formed in 
battle-array right before their eyes. 

On the night of Oct. 29, Geary was furiously attacked ; 
but he was on his guard, and his assailants were re- 
pulsed with dreadful slaughter. Sherman was rapidly 
coming up with his army from the Big Black by the 
way of Memphis ; and Grant, with some anxiety, Avaited 
his arrival. Longstreet was beleaguering Burnside at 
Knoxville ; and Grant wished to fight this battle promptly, 
and re-enforce Burnside. Sherman soon reported in per- 
son ; and, Nov. 23, Grant's movements commenced. Sheri- 
dan's and Wood's divisions of Granger's corps seized Orchard 
Ridge, and held it. Geary, on the 24th, capturing pickets 
at the bridge, extended his force to the base of the moun- 
tain. At eleven, a.m., our guns opened a terrific fire. 
Hookers men were ordered to charge up the mountain 
at the very muzzles of the enemy's guns ; and they 
moved promptly. Up those heroes toiled, over rocks, 
through ravines, and around precipitous cliffs, until about 
twelve, when Geary's men rounded the peak, and they were 

83 



658 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

ordered to pause. But they could not, would not, hear : on 
they rushed, till they reached the summit, and hurled their 
astonished foes over the precipitous eastern declivities of 
the mountain. The battle was above the clouds. It was 
soon dark, and the carnage ceased. Geary was here re-en- 
enforced by Carlisle from the fourteenth corps ; and the 
enemy fled, leaving twenty thousand rations to our men. 

By daylight, eight thousand of Sherman's men were over 
the river. Others crossed rapidly ; and he fought his way 
up, and carried the north end of Mission Ridge. Thomas 
pushed forward Howard's corps till it united with Sher- 
man. Hooker's brave men gallantly charged the enemy, 
and took Mission Ridge, capturing large numbers of pris- 
oners. 

Sherman attacked at daylight on the 25th, A fierce 
and bloody conflict raged till three, p.m. Message after mes- 
sage came to Grant that we were beaten ; but he calmly 
waited for Hooker's advance. Judg;ing^ that the crisis had 
come, he rode bravely along the ranks, saying, in his strong, 
brief way, " Men, get ready : I want you ! " Cheers answered 
the call of their beloved commander-in-chief Thomas now 
received orders ; and Baird, Ward, and Sheridan's divisions 
rushed forward, driving the rebels from their rifle-pits. On 
they pressed, in the face of grape and canister from more 
than thirty pieces of artillery. The ridge was gained ; and 
our brave men had achieved a victory that opened the door 
to Georgia. Sherman and Hooker pursued the flying forces, 
while Thomas promptly organized the expedition for the re- 
lief of Burnside and our noble patriots of East Tennessee. 
Before our men had time to rest, they were dashing on 
towards Knoxville under the tireless Sherman ; and making 
the last eighty-four miles, over dreadful roads, in three days, 
they soon convinced Longstreet that he must raise the siege. 
Our brave, hard-fighting, suffering men at Knoxville hailed 
their deliverers with transports of joy. 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 659 

THE BLOODY MARCH TO RICHMOND. 

Experience had taught the government that concentra- 
tion was indispensable to success. The clear mind of Mr. 
Lincoln saw this; and, waiting patiently until he was sure 
the people saw it, he brought forward the measure, and 
Congress adopted it, creating the office of Lieutenant-Gen- 
eral: and on the second day of March, 1864, upon his nomi- 
nation, Ulysses S. Grant was confirmed Lieutenant-General 
by the Senate, and, under the President, commander-in-chief 
of all the armies of the United States. In notifying Gen. 
Grant of his appointment, Mr. Lincoln said, "As the country 
herein trusts you, so, under God, it will sustain you." Gen. 
Grant, in his reply, said, "I feel the full weight of the 
responsibilities now devolving on me ; and I know, that, if 
they are properly met, it will be due to those armies " [the 
" noble armies " mentioned above], " and, above all, to the 
favor of that Providence which leads both nations and men." 
Never did two men rise more grandly up to the highest 
responsibilities: God was, to their great minds, the sover- 
eign and the trust of the nation. 

Gen. Grant announced that his headquarters would be in 
the field, and, for the present, with the Army of the Poto- 
mac, now raised to more than a hundred thousand troops. 
They were re-organized in three corps, — the second com- 
manded by Hancock, the fifth by Warren, and the sixth by 
Sedgwick ; the whole under the general orders of Major- 
Gen. Meade. The ninth corps, under Burnside, was subse- 
quently added. 

A grand campaign now received form in the quiet, colos- 
sal mind of the Lieutenant-General, commanding, in effect, a 
million of men. It comprised two great features. The 
Army of the Potomac, moving towards Richmond, would 
seek the rebel army of Northern Virginia, their main force 
under Gen. R. E. Lee ; and Gen. W. T. Sherman, command- 
ing the departments of Ohio, Cumberland, Tennessee, and 



660 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

Arkansas, would move eastward from Chattanooga, and seek 
the other great army of the Rebellion under Gen. J. E. 
Johnston. The two forces were to be sustained by auxiliary 
commands, all concentrating at Richmond. We were amazed 
at the greatness of the conception, pleased by its simplicity, 
and rendered hopeful by its unity of design. Now, for the 
first time, the military power and grandeur of the United 
States would appear. 

All things being ready, on the night of the 3d and 
4th of May, Gen. Grant's army moved. He crossed the 
Rapidan in the face of his antagonist commanding eighty 
thousand veterans, and fought the terrible battle of the 
Wilderness ; where, during three dreadful days, on both 
sides, probably, thirty thousand men fell in the struggles of 
death. He penned the famous despatch, " I propose to fight 
it out on this line if it takes all summer," and followed Lee 
rapidly to Spottsylvania Court-house. Here another terrific 
battle was fought, in which some twenty thousand of our 
brave men fell, killed or wounded. Grant, believing that he 
had inflicted upon the enemy all the injury practicable at 
that place, and having stormed one set of breastworks and 
been arrested before another, proceeded quietly to flank his 
antagonist. He made a desperate effort to reach the North 
Anna first, and throw his army between Lee and Richmond ; 
but the rebels had the interior line and the best roads. 
When, therefore. Grant reached this point, he found them 
directly in his track, protected by formidable works pro- 
vided for just this contingency. Warren and Hancock 
bravely forced the passage of the river, but to find Lee 
strongly intrenched in a position which could only be taken 
at an enormous expense of life. Gen. Grant, therefore, 
ordered his men to recross the river ; and the next Gen. 
Lee knew of him, he was on the direct way to Richmond. 
Soon, confronted by Lee in a position not to render an en- 
gagement desirable, Grant made another flank movement, 
with the view of crossing the Chickahominy ; and accepted 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 661 

battle at Cold Harbor. Here, on a portion of the old battle- 
ffroiind of M'Clellan and Lee, a most destructive engao-e- 
ment occurred. Near ten thousand of our brave men fell 
in less than half an hour. In killed, wounded, and missing, 
we sacrificed thirteen thousand one hundred and fifty-three 
men ; and the battle was not decisive. Grant performed 
another perilous flank movement ; crossed the Chickahominy, 
despite the resistance of his foes ; dashed across to the James ; 
and was soon heard thundering from the south of Rich- 
mond. 

Butler had been firmly intrenched at Bermuda Hundred, 
and had made various movements for the destruction of 
railroads, taking Petersburg, &c. He met with some suc- 
cesses, but failed to produce that powerful diversion in 
favor of Grant which was to form an important part of the 
campaign. 

Sheridan had been almost ubiquitous, — now hanging like 
a storm-cloud around the flanks of the enemy, now cutting 
his communications and destroying his supplies, and now 
fighting desperate battles with rebel cavalry, — displaying 
everywhere those dashing qualities, directed by the clearest 
judgment, which have placed him by the side of the best 
cavalry and corps commanders known in history. 

We had fought our way to the end of that line ; we had 
placed liors de combed some forty thousand of the enemy : 
but, alas ! this had cost us, in killed, wounded, and prison- 
ers, nearly one hundred thousand men. We had adopted 
the only alternative, — pursuing and fighting our foes when 
we could find them, and, by bold and skilful tactics, avoiding 
a conflict when necessary. We had diminished the force 
threatening Washington from sixty thousand to twenty 
thousand men. We had impaired the strength of the 
enemy, rendering it impossible for him to regain it; and 
developed the enormous resources of the nation, filling up 
our wasting ranks with unfaihng recruits. We had made 
our bloody march to Richmond. 



662 THE GREAT BEPUBLIC. 

THE TRIUMPHAL MARCH FROM ATLANTA TO THE SEA. 

Gen. Sherman had fought his way to Atlanta, and, by a 
series of briUiant engagements, had seized this southern 
stronghold of the Confederacy. Well might the rebel 
authorities ask, " What will he attempt next ? " They were, 
doubtless, men of great sagacity ; but it may be presumed, 
that, in all their theories, they did not include the slightest 
conception of what was about to occur. 

It was a natural suggestion to the minds of the Southern 
people, and taken up by the brave and chivalrous Hood, that 
Sherman was now so far from his base of supplies, that his 
communications could be easily cut, and his whole army de- 
stroyed. With this idea. Hood was soon in his rear, breaking 
up railroads, and preparing obstructions to the Union retreat. 
Sherman pursued him as if his very life depended upon it, 
until he drove him so far as to develop another part of the 
grand campaign, under command of the indomitable Thomas, 
with headquarters at Nashville ; and the next Gen. Hood 
knew of him, he had burned the rebel works at Atlanta and 
much of the city, simply putting it out of the power of the 
enemy to use them, and was on his way towards the Atlantic 
Ocean. Men North and South looked on with amazement. 
Our splendid army, severed from its base of supplies, was 
marching madly into the very heart of the enemy's country. 
What would the Confederates do ? The chivalrous South 
proudly answered, " Rise in mass, and destroy them." 

Gen. Hood could not hope to overtake Sherman. He, how- 
ever, moved on to his destruction in the very engagements 
intended for him by Gen. Grant, under the cool, strong gen- 
eralship of Thomas. 

The rising which was to destroy Sherman did not occur. 
The skirmishes on his way could hardly be termed battles. 
He swept through a rich country, over a breadth of thirty 
miles, his army faring sumptuously, dashing away all oppos- 
ing forces, and destroying railroads and the supplies of war. 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 663 

The world held its breath as he passed out of sight, but 
cheered with unparalleled enthusiasm when he reported from 
Savannah. He had performed the triumphal march "from 
Atlanta to the sea ; " he had destroyed the richest granary 
of Confederate supplies, severed their communications, 
flanked Charleston, and compelled its evacuation ; and 
moved up grandly to within supporting distance of Grant 
at Richmond. 

RICHMOND. 

The commander-in-chief of the armies of the Great Re- 
public had not reached his position to sit down to the work 
of a quiet siege ; nor was he there simply to take Richmond. 
His great theory of breaking up the Rebellion by destroying 
its armies appears everywhere. One attack, therefore, fol- 
lows another ; one day's failure is succeeded by another 
day's effort. His wily foe, with the view of compelling him to 
loose his terrible hold, sends all the force he can spare into 
the Shenandoah Valley to menace Washington. Grant can- 
not be frightened. He makes the necessary provisions to 
meet that emergency by the genius of Sheridan, and holds 
on to the throat of the Rebellion. One of his collateral 
plans requires that Fort Fisher should be taken; and Butler 
undertakes it, without success. Grant hands over the task 
to Gen. Terry, and it is done. His brave troops are beaten 
off from one line of communication, and he attacks another. 
The enemy rejoices in silencing his guns on one front, and 
presently they are thundering away on another. A terrific 
mine is sprung, and an assault fails ; but a charge in 
another quarter immediately taxes all the energies of the 
rebels. He positively gives them no rest. Their successive 
beating to quarters, their exhausting vigils and charges, are 
actually painful to see. If any demanded, " Why don't he 
take Richmond ? " the answer plainly was, " He is not there 
for that purpose. He is simply seeking to destroy the rebel 
armies of Lee and Johnston." For this he had struggled to 



664 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

get between Lee and his fortifications ; for this he de- 
spatched Sheridan to destroy railroads and canals, and cut off 
supplies, and prevent re-enforcements ; for this he dashed 
up to Washington, on his way to Tennessee, when he thought 
Thomas would delay his attack upon Hood until the grand 
opportunity had passed ; for this he ordered Sherman to 
drive ruin through the heart of the Confederacy, and come 
up in the rear of Richmond, forcing Johnston to move con- 
stantly nearer and nearer to the common vortex ; finally, 
for this he waived all means of hopeful attack which did 
not include the shutting-up of every way of escape to the 
rebel army. 

The grand crisis had come at last. The great campaign 
was about to close at the rebel capital, in and near which, 
by the vast combinations of one great mind, every vital ele- 
ment of the Rebellion had been literally compelled to gather. 

The final orders were given, and the army of freemen 
moved to its desperate work. The fighting was terrific ; but 
there was no yielding. On, on, our brave heroes pressed : 
one position after another yielded to their valor : they 
stood firm amid grape and canister and bursting shells; 
rushed fearlessly upon the gleaming bayonet ; stormed 
through the breach at the cannon's mouth ; assailed the re- 
treating foe with long miles of blazing fire ; until that 
morning of Sunday, the second day of April, I860, came, 
and the trembling chief, Jefferson Davis, received in his pew, 
in the midst of the service, that ominous despatch from the 
heroic Lee, " My lines are broken in three places. Richmond 
must be evacuated this evening." 

Richmond had fallen ! The glorious intelligence was 
flashed over the Union, The dismay and the screeching, 
the rush and the whirl, the fleeing throng and the roaring 
flames, at the capital of the Rebellion ; and the ringing of 
bells, the notes of thrilling joy from bands of music, and 
shouts of freemen in ecstasies, in every part of the North, — 
made this day memorable in the annals of the Republic. 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 665 

The last desperate struggles of Gen. Lee were painful to 
behold. They were very bloody, but all of no avail. The 
toils of the great commander were too strong for him to 
break through. The terms were truly magnanimous. The 
Army of Northern Virginia surrendered. 

The final surrender of Johnston to the gallant Sherman, 
after instructions from the government, and council with 
his noble friend Gen. Grant, soon followed ; and the War of 
the Rebellion was ended. 

The Confederates intended it for a grand moral and phys- 
ical triumph of slavery ; the government at Washington 
intended it for the restoration of the Union ; God intended 
it for the destruction of slavery, and the full development 
of his plans of freedom on this continent. God's plans tri- 
umphed, and the war closed. 



The storm is past ! 

So soon, so fast, 
The sulphurous cloud hath hurried by 
That hung so heavy on the sky, — 
A dark, oppressive canopy ! 
It parts St) gently as we gaze, 
We wonder at the morning haze. 

How swift it came 

With march of flame ! 
And, while we paused to dream of war, 
The rush of battle broke afar, 
And through the smoke shone not a star : 
We only saw by battle-gleams 
The startling image of our dreams. 

Its earthquake tread 

We heard with dread ; 
And far-off nations, wondering, gazed. 
As high the flame of battle blazed. 
And loud the shout of war was raised. 
The days were dark ; we paled with fear; 
And summer skies were sad and drear. 



We saw the brave, 
Both gay and grave, 
84 



666 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

In awful combat haste to die, 
And sink so low and silently, 
As if such life were but a sigh : 
The battle-greed, unsated still, 
Of friend and foe yet sought its fill. 

It seems a spell ; 

So quick it fell. 
And hushed the cannon's deafening boom. 
And set ajar the doors of doom 
To brothers sitting in the gloom : 
It fell like beauty from a cloud 
On us so long in sadness bowed. 

It spans the sky 

In victory. 
The bow of Peace is firmly set 
Against the storm-cloud's front of jet, 
Upraised by gleaming bayonet : 
We see the harmless lightning's play ; 
The thunder dies in peace away. 

Now homeward pour. 
From fields of gore. 
The broken columns of the brave ; 
Their tattered banners proudly wave : 
Behind them lingers not a slave. 
But, ah ! the sleeping tarry long : 
They only live in deathless song. 

The prayers we said 

Are answered. 
In God's own way we own 'twas done : 
The price was great ; and God alone 
Unsevered keeps the Union one. 
And still we pray, O God of peace ! 
In Freedom's reign let battles cease.* 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE WAR. 

The religion of Jesus allows no personal resentments : it 
requires love for hatred, and meekness under suffering. Nor 
will it permit national injustice or unrighteous retribution ; 
but it requires the magistrate to protect the right, and 
punish aggressors who seek to destroy civil government. 
" lie is the minister of God for this very thing," and " he 

* Dwight Williams. 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 667 

beareth not the sword in vain." When, therefore, liberty is 
assailed, the executive justice of the nation must defend it, 
and destroy the power which would overthrow it. 

Hence, when the Great Rebellion broke out, as in the days 
of the Revolution, the pulpit sounded the alarm, and the 
holiest Christiiin ministers and laymen called the nation to 
the defence of liberty. As in Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and 
other places threatened by the foe, distinguished preach- 
ers of the gospel led their people to the defence, wrought 
with their own hands in constructing field-works, or, when 
allowed, took their places in the ranks. In very large num- 
bers, they filled distinguished positions in the army, or fought 
with common soldiers, and shared to the utmost their dan- 
gers and sufferings. They served as chaplains, and per- 
formed the offices of religion for the well, the sick, and the 
dying. 

The Christian Alliance, under the active agency of Rev. 
C. C. Goss, in April, 1861, began a series of most vigorous 
efforts for the relief and religious instruction of the soldiers. 
He at once instituted means for the distribution of reading:- 
matter ; and large numbers of our soldiers were soon per- 
mitted to read in the camp their own valued church and 
secular periodicals and other useful literature. As the voice 
of the Christian Alliance sounded out in warm, earnest ap- 
peals, noble citizens, ministers, publishers, responded ; and the 
means of mental relief and support came into their depots, 
and were passed out in steady streams. Kind visitations, 
faithful religious instruction and services, and unnumbered 
offices of kindness, accompanied these supplies of mental 
aliment. 

The Sanitary Commission arose from the earnest and hu- 
mane examinations of distinguished philanthropists into the 
condition, perils, and wants of our vast armies in the field. 
It was ascertained that the legally-appointed methods of 
medical and surgical treatment, and supplies of food and 
nursing for the sick, were not, and could not be, sufficiently 



668 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

prompt and tender to meet the wants of our suffering, 
bleeding thousands in the camp and on the battle-field. 
They were dying in large numbers — dying in agonies in- 
describable — for the want of attention. These facts were 
brought out, and the heart of the nation was moved. Plans 
for organizing relief were promptly submitted to the gov- 
ernment ; and on the 9th of June, 18G1, " a commission of 
inquiry and advice, in respect of the sanitary interests of 
the United-States forces," was appointed. Henry W. Bel- 
lows, D.D., was at its head ; and, in an incredibly short time, 
an army of philanthropists moved into the field, and ample 
stores of medicines, clothing, and food suitable for the sick, 
were supplied by the liberal. The Commission, with its of- 
fices of kindness, and by its generous hands and sympathizing 
hearts, was everywhere, — upon the battle-field, in the hospi- 
tals, on the track of advance and retreat, bearing away the 
wounded, putting the cup of cold water to the lips of the 
dying, dressing wounds, nursing the sick, and thus saving 
thousands of valuable lives. Money flowed into their treas- 
ury like water. California alone gave $1,233,831.31 ; other 
Pacific States and Territories, with the greatest liberality, 
added to these contributions ; till the aggregate amount from 
that coast swelled to the large sum of $1,473,407.07, — all to 
send relief to our suflferiug soldiers in the field of slaughter. 
From every State and every town in the loyal Union, and 
from other countries far off and near, these supplies came in, 
amounting in all, from Dec. 4, 1862, to Jan. 1, 1866, to 
$4,924,048.99. The world stood amazed before these efforts 
of humanity, rising up from the pervading Christian sense 
of the American people. 

The United-States Christian Commission arose from the 
conviction, that, with relief for the bodies of our soldiers, 
there was an imperative demand for more thorough atten- 
tion to the wants of their souls. Just as the Sanitary Com- 
mission came in to supplement the labors and supply the 
defects of the medical staff and commissariat of the army, 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 669 

the Christian Commission came in to the aid of chaplains 
and other Christian philanthropists, to give the blessino-s of 
experimental Christianity, with temporal supplies, to our 
needy soldiers. 

It was organized in Philadelphia on the 16th of Novem- 
ber, 1861, in response to a call from the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association. George H. Stewart, Esq., its most promi- 
nent man, and a multitude of other noble philanthropists, 
devoted time and wealth and prayers to this great enter- 
prise until the war was over, 

" In both means and men there Avas no lack, but a 
steady and rapid growth, of abundance, without a parallel 
in the history of Christian charities. Every day of its ex- 
istence seems to have given the Commission a wider range, 
and a firmer hold upon the affection and confidence of the 
churches and patriots of the land. In the first year, its 
receipts amounted to $231,000; in the second year, they 
reached $916,837; in the third year, $2,282,347. From 
January to May of the fourth and last year of its activity, 
the donations were $2,228,105." 

For the whole period of its services, from the 16tli of 
November, 1861, to May, 1866, in cash, services, provisions, 
clothing, &c., its Christian charities and labors for the relief 
of our soldiers were estimated at $6,291,107.68. Dele- 
gates commissioned, 4,859, — working in the aggregate, 
without compensation, 185,562 daj^s ; boxes of stores and 
publications, 95,066 ; Bibles, Testaments, and other portions 
of Scripture, 1,466,748 ; hymn and psalm books, 1,370,953 ; 
knapsacks, books in paper and flexible covers, 8,308,052 ; 
bound library-books, 296,816; magazines and pamphlets, 
767,861 ; religious weekly and monthly periodicals, 18,126,- 
002; pages of tracts, 39,104,246; '-Silent Comforter," &c., 
8,572 ; sermons preached by delegates, 58,308 ; prayer- 
meetings held by delegates, 77,744 ; letters written by dele- 
gates for soldiers, 92,321.* 

* For the above extracts and figures, I am indebted to Kev. T. A. FERNLEr. 



670 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

"The home-comforts, provisions, delicacies, clothing, and 
ten thousand appliances, for the relief of the suffering, which 
people showered upon the arm^^, were conveyed to the sol- 
diers throug-h the hands of volunteer laborers fresh from 
home, whose only pay for their toil was the blessing of 
God, and the gratitude and happiness of those for whom 
they labored. Coffee-wagons, called by the soldiers ' Chris- 
tian artillery,' were drawn along the lines, furnishing the 
men with hot coflfee, fresh toast, &c., during the battle. On 
the field, gathering up the wounded ; in the field-hospitals, 
bathing and dressing wounds; by the side of the dying, 
offering prayer, or snatching a few last words for the be- 
reaved family at home, — these laborers were found in large 
numbers. It was estimated by the officers and surgeons of 
the Army of the Potomac, that, during the Wilderness cam- 
paign alone, at least three thousand lives were saved, besides 
all the suffering alleviated. But while these men carried 
in one hand bread which perisheth, in the other they carried 
the bread of heaven. While they labored to heal the wounds 
of the body, they also aided the wounded soul to step into 
the fountain opened, and be healed." * 

Woman in the War was an angel of mercy. From the 
common walks of virtuous life, from the highest circles of 
culture and affluence. Christian women entered the hospitals 
and the fields of blood, to sacrifice comfort, health, and even 
life itself, to relieve our sick and dying soldiers ; to bless 
them with woman's tenderness, her gentle voice, her kind 
instructions, and faithful prayers. From Maine to California, 
they bore incredible hardships, toiled night and day in 
societies, festivals, and fairs, and in manufacturing lint and 
bandages for the wounds of our martyr-heroes. 

Christian labor went beyond direct army-work ; and 
noble, heroic men volunteered without pay to bear all the 
trials of the camp and the march and the field, rushing into 
the very jaws of death to save souls. Everywhere the build- 

* Communication of Rev. C. P. Ltfoed. 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 671 

ing of rude chapels, fixithful preaching, and meetings for 
prayer, frequently amid the bursting of shells, revealed the 
noblest Christian heroism in the work of regeneration. Gra- 
cious revivals and conversions, numbering hundreds and 
thousands, resulted from these self-sacrificing labors. 

Let it now be observed that every church in the loyal 
North, in all their official bodies, sustained the government 
by the most hearty resolutions, the outpouring of their 
treasures and men, and the boldest action. The religious 
life poured through the nation's heart to its very extremi- 
ties, giving great force to these words from our beloved 
President, Abraham Lincoln. They were spoken in response 
to a thoroughly loyal message, through their committee, of 
the General Conference of the Methodist-Episcopal Church, 
in the midst of the bloody march of Grant to Richmond. 

"Nobly sustained as the government has been by all the 
churches, I would utter nothing which might in the least 
appear invidious against any. Yet, without this, it may 
fairly be said that the Methodist-Episcopal Church, not less 
devoted than the best, is, by its greater numbers, the most 
important of all. It is no fault in others that the Methodist 
Church sends more soldiers to the field, more nurses to the 
hospitals, and more prayers to Heaven, than any. God bless 
the Methodist Church, bless all the churches ! And blessed 
be God, who, in this our great trial, giveth us the churches ! " 

No mind in America rose more grandly up to the reli- 
<>;ions sio-nificance of the war than that of Abraham Lincoln. 
Let us record the solemn words uttered in his last inaugu- 
ral address : " Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, 
that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. 
Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled 
by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited 
toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with 
the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as 
was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, 
' The judgment^s of the Lord are true and righteous alto- 
gether.' " 



672 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 



MURDEROUS REVENGE. 

The nation was in triumph. A day had burst upon our 
sky more glorious than any which ever before shone upon 
any land beneath the sun. Joy and gratitude swelled the 
hearts of our free millions. The ' Rebellion was crushed ; 
slavery was dead. Peace came, with" her rich consolations, 
to bless our land, so long distressed and bleeding. 

No oppressed heart, no tired brain, felt such relief as the 
heart and brain of Abraham Lincoln. No spirit of haughty 
triumph appeared. He had tears for the suffering and the 
bereaved, pity for the conquered, and pardon for the rebel- 
lious. He was the grandest type in existence of a great, 
magnanimous, conquering, Christian nation. 

From these heights of exultant joy, the millions of Ameri- 
can citizens were suddenly plunged into the deepest distress. 
Abraham Lincoln was slain ! The hand of a vile assassin 
had taken away the most precious life on the continent. 
No intelligence so direful ever burdened the telegraphic 
wires, no sorrow so deep and awful ever settled down 
upon the heart of a nation. 

At twenty-two minutes past seven o'clock, on the morn- 
ing of the 15th of April, 1865, the great and good Mr. Lin- 
coln breathed his last. 

The last expression of the vileness of slavery, the fell 
revenge of expiring oppression, the concentrated malignity 
of thirty years, struck the highest, purest representative of 
American freedom ; and he died for the country, which, in 
the hands of God, he had lived to save. 

War and darkness o'er the nation gloomed ; 

Terror ruled the Capitol. The chief, 
Still great in death, lay pale and unentombed, 

Embalmed in myriad flowers of love and grief; 
While round him sadly, higher, day by day, 
The dirges rose and slowly died away. 

What reck we now the assassin's word or blow? 
The struggling Samson with hia dying prayer 



THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 673 

Did Dagon's temple with its gods o'erthrow, 

And plant the holier shrine of Freedom there. 
Foul Treason tangled in his meshes lies, 
While radiant Truth soars upward to the skies. 

'Tis done ! Bear slowly out the sleeping form, 

The mighty dead. Triumph succeeds the strife. 
He saw the sun arise beyond the storm, 

And drank from him the glorious tides of life. 
Oh ! death is but the hero's tranquil rest 
When nations honor, and when Heaven has blest. 

Now bear him slowly out by muffled drum, 

Ye soldiers, comrades whom he loved so well ; 
Around him let the mighty heroes come 

Whose stars their fields of death and victory tell: 
Bow low, and tenderly that name repeat, — 
Your watchword in advance or dark retreat. 

Now bear him out where seaport cities rise, 

And wealth and commerce on the nations wait ; 
Where masts and spires, encircling, kiss the skies 

In The Republic's eastward golden gate. 
A nation's moan rises the mountains o'er ; 
Atlantic answers the Pacific shore. 

Now rest him here ; for, lo ! the people come, — 
The high, the low, — his children all, they seem, — 

With ashy face, and lips of marble, dumb. 

This pageant vast — 'twere like a mighty dream 

Of some far planet, where the light of day 

Had for eternal ages died away. 

But no : earth yet may claim Jehovah reigns ; 

The nation of the free is still his care : 
He, though the great may die, the right maintains ; 

He gently bends to heed the lowliest prayer : 
And, now crushed hearts of nations to him call. 
He heeds their cry ; he marks the sparrow's fall. 

HomewMrd still bear him on. There shall he rest 

'Mid prairie-flowers that hail the golden sun. 
When Freedom's States, from east to glorious west, 

For God and Truth and Liberty are one. 
Ye heroes, who for freedom lie so low. 
The noble soul of Lincoln joins you now. 

Build high the monument ; the storied bust 

Crown with flowers ; let childhood's tender years 
With beauty bend lamenting o'er his dust. 

And hallow deathless glory with their tears ; 
Then on the skies the bright inscription read, — 

Hie NOBLEST MONUMENT IS A NATION FBEED. 
85 



574 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

Arise, my Country ! gird thee for the fight; 

Lead on the van of nations yet to come : 
The heavens are arming for the struggling right, 

And star-eyed Freedom seeks lier sunset home ; 
Immortal Hope to glory guides thy way ; 
And Time's last twilight kindles into day* 

* Burial of Lincoln. By L. W. P. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE TRIUMPH OF LIBERTY. 

" As for me, I dare not, will not, be false to Freedom. Where the feet of my youth 
were pliintcd, there, by Freedom, my feet shall ever stand. I will walk beneath her ban- 
ner ; 1 will glory in her strength. I have seen her friends fly from her, her foes gather 
around her ; 1 have seen her bound to the stake ; 1 have seen them ^ive her ashes to the 
winds : but, when they turned to exult, I have seen her again meet them face to face, 
resplendent in complete steel, brandishing in her right hand a flaming sword red with 
insufferable light. I take courage. The people gather around her. The Genius of America 
will at last lead her sons to freedom." — Senator Bakek. 

" We know how to save the Union. The world knows we know how to save it. In 
giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free, — honorable alike in what we 
give and what we preserve. We sIkiH nobly save, or meanly lose, the last, best hope of 
earth. Other means may succeed : this could not, cannot, fail. The way is plain, peace- 
ful, generous, just, — a way, which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God 
must forever bless." — Abraham Lincoln. 

Amid the carnage of terrific battle, it was almost impos- 
sible not to ask, Why must this desolating war continue ? 
why must our brave troops be slaughtered, and no decisive 
victory follow 1 Some there were who thought they saw 
the reason in the crying injustice of slavery. It began to 
be most earnestly said that Providence demanded justice 
as the condition of victory. Was it true that the American 
people had not yet comprehended the meaning of this 
dreadful chastisement, — that God would lead them througli 
their trials to see their great sin, and renounce it? Did 
God intend to destroy slavery by this war? Many thought 
so ; a few said it in eloquent words, and appealed to Heaven 
in fervent prayer for this result. Among others, the Prot- 
evStant ministers of Chicago and vicinity intensely believed 
it, and sent a deputation to lay their views before the Presi- 
dent. They were kindly received ; and, while he held his 
own opinions in abeyance, he drew out their strongest ar- 



076 ^HE GREAT EEPtJBLIC, 

guments in favor of emancipation by proclamation, as a war 
measure, and their answers to objections not his own. 

He said, " I raise no objections against it on legal or con- 
stitutional grounds ; for, as commander-in-chief of the army 
and navy in time of war, I suppose I have a right to take 
any measure which may best subdue the enemy," He was 
simply anxious to know the state of the public mind, the 
degree of advancement in the track of his own profound 
judgments. He had checked his own commanders because 
they were in advance of the people : but he at length came 
to the conviction that the people would sustain him ; and 
hence, on the twenty-second day of September, 1862, he 
issued a proclamation containing these words : " On the 
first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves in 
any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof 
shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be 
then, thenceforward, and forever free." 

The people were electrified. Good men were filled with 
delight and gratitude. The rebels were wild with fury. 
The Northern enemies of the President denounced it as a 
most tyrannical assumption of power : but, having taken his 
position, he was immovable ; and according to promise, when 
the hundred days had expired, he issued 

THE GREAT PROCLAMATION. 

" I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by 
virtue of the power in me vested as commander-in-chief of 
the army and navy of the United States in time of actual 
armed rebellion against the authority and government of 
the United States, and as a fit and necessary war-measure 
for suppressing said rebellion, do on this first day of Jan- 
uary, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred 
and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, 
publiclj^ proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days 



THE TRIUMPH OF LIBERTY. 677 

from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as 
the States, and parts of States, wherein the people tliereof 
respectively are this day in rebellion against the United 
States, the following ; to wit " [the names of the rebel States, 
with exceptions, are then mentioned]. 

" And, by virtue of the power and for the purpose afore- 
said, I do order and declare, that all persons held as slaves 
within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and 
henceforward shall be, free ; and that the executive govern- 
ment of the United States, including the military and naval 
authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom 
of said persons. 

" And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be 
free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary seli- 
defence ; and I recommend to them all, that, in all cases 
when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. 

"And I farther declare and make known that such per- 
sons, of suitable condition, will be received into the armed 
service of the United States, to garrison forts, positions, sta- 
tions, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said 
service. 

" And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of jus- 
tice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, 
I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and gra- 
cious favor of Almighty God." 

Thus spake the wisest, best man of our times ; and near 
four millions of slaves leaped at once into liberty ! From 
that moment, God commanded victory to the armies of Free- 
dom. 

BLACK WARRIORS. 

Prejudice against color so thoroughly pervaded the North 
as well as the South, that the government did not at first 
entertain the idea of admitting x\fricans to the army. The 
most determined purpose was manifested to fight their bat- 



678 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

ties, but allow them no opportunity to fight for themselves. 
Dreadful reverses, and the absolute necessity for men, joined 
with the devoted loyalty of the blacks to the government, 
overcame these scruples. People of color showed most val- 
uable kindness to Union men attempting to escape from 
rebel prisons, by furnishing food and relief to famishing 
soldiers, and as guides to our armies. At length, they 
met with a friendly reception as " contrabands ; " and finally 
they rose to the dignity of soldiers in the army of Freedom. 
The proclamation indicated some of the perilous methods in 
which they might serve their country, and they moved 
promptly into all the positions declared open to them. The 
outcry of the rebels against this measure, characterizing it as 
a barbarous attempt to encourage all the horrors of insurrec- 
tion, and their terrible threats and proclamations of retali- 
ation, were strangely inconsistent. From the first moment 
of hostilities, they availed themselves of the services of their 
able-bodied slaves to strengthen their army ; and if the slaves 
did not appear in the rank and file, yet their hard field-labors 
released others, and added them to the fighting force. Indeed, 
as no insurrection, no acts of barbarism, followed, and our 
strong colored troops were performing prodigies of valor, 
in their last extremity the rebels undertook to devise a 
method of making soldiers of their slaves ; but it was too 
late. Indeed, it might be unsafe for them, but safe for the 
nation ; for the instincts of the slaves were in favor of liberty. 
When the world saw the promptness with which, to the 
number of 178,975, they volunteered to enter the army, 
the ease with which they accepted the most stringent disci- 
pline, their noble military bearing, and the desperate valor 
with which they charged the enemy or led a storming col- 
umn, there was no longer any question as to the rank and 
value of black warriors. A recosrnition of the true manhood 
of the oppressed race was thus, by act of Providence, forced 
upon the American people. This was the second great 
triumph of liberty. 



THE TRIUMPH OF LIBERTY. 679 



THE VICTORIES OF BLOOD AND OF TRUTH. 

The American people had passed through unparalleled suf- 
ferings. Our dead, fallen in the struggle, numbered at least 
325,000 ; and some 200,000 had gone into the spirit-world 
fighting for slavery. More than half a million of the American 
people had perished to settle the question, whether America 
should be slave or free ; and the wail of sorrow, coming up 
from every part of the land, pierced the heavens. Great 
was our anguish, and great had been our crime ; but God's 
purposes in regard to the United States were now becom- 
ing more evident, and men were awed before the majesty 
of his power. We began to realize " the mission of great 
suffering." Our victories were not merely over the em- 
battled hosts of rebellion, but over the prejudices of ages. 
We had conquered ourselves. See what opinions had gone 
down in this struggle, and what truths had taken their place ! 
We thought slavery was chiefly a misfortune : we had learned 
that it was an enormous individual and national crime. We 
thought it could be met by concessions, but learned that it 
must be destroyed. We thought it could be eradicated by 
truth, but learned that it could go out only in blood. We 
thought the war must be one of white men, but learned that 
the slaves were to have place and rank in the battle for free- 
dom. We thought we could save the Union, and concede 
" the right" of property in man ; but we learned that liberty 
and Union must stand or fall together. We thought we were 
fighting for the sovereignty of the government, but learned 
that we were fighting to emancipate the negroes and the 
nation. We thought, when the war was over, we must then 
deal with slavery as we might be able, but learned that the 
war could not be ended until we had " proclaimed liberty 
throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof" We 
thought the manhood of slaves must be the result of long 
and almost impossible culture ; but we learned that it was 
in their very being, and must have recognition and justice 



680 THE GREAT REPCTBLIC. 

before the era of education could begin. Finally, we had 
learned that God had determined to extend to the nation the 
regeneration which had long been recognized as the privi- 
lege of the individual only. So grandly rose truth in its 
new incarnation to enter upon its broader, mightier mission 
to the world. 

THE GREAT AMENDMENT. 

The Great Proclamation had released the slaves in the ter- 
ritory dominated by the Confederacy, and, with what seemed 
anomalous inconsistency, left in slavery those who were 
within the actual sovereignty of the United-States Govern- 
ment. This showed, not the principles or wishes of the Presi- 
dent, but his loyal obedience to the Constitution. He would 
not advance a single step in favor of his most sacred princi- 
ples without the clear authority of law ; but the nation 
must make the o-reat fundamental chano^e. 

O CD 

When the Constitution was established, it seemed to have 
but one great task ; which was, to work out of itself the wrong 
of a blind, almost concealed, indorsement of slavery. Broad 
and strong and sound in the main as it was, it was not equal 
to the work of shielding so enormous a vice from the blows 
which would be levelled at it by the hand of justice. Some 
there were, who, even in the earliest days of its authority, 
foresaw that it must some time purge itself from this vice, or 
be overthrown by it. Nothing could be logically clearer ; and 
yet the power and sophistry of class interest and astute 
political leaders bewildered the people, and nearly succeeded 
in making the vilest tyranny and most odious caste appear 
to be the true intent of the fundamental law. It was only 
when the ruin which had been so long and insidiously work- 
ing within the government broke out in overt acts of rebel- 
lion that the nation roused itself to the necessity of casting 
out from the Constitution this warring element of defiant 
oppression. Accordingly, on the thirty-first day of January, 
1865, the great amendment was finally adopted by Congress. 



THE TRIUMPH OF LIBERTY. 681 

Subsequently indorsed by the required numbers of States, it 
became Article XIIT. of the Constitution; namely: "Sect. 1. 
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a pun- 
ishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly 
convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place 
subject to their jurisdiction. Sect. 2. Congress shall have 
power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." 
This achievement, reserved for our own day, was the strong- 
est possible development of essential liberty. Other previous 
amendments were of comparatively small importance. There 
are some to follow, which will render more distinct and un- 
deniable the equality of all men before the law, and make 
still clearer acknowledgment of the humble dependence of 
our great providential nation upon the arm of Almighty 
God. 

It was, of course, indispensable that the States should adjust 
their civil governments to this grand development of national 
freedom. This they are now in the act of doing. Amid the 
agonies of revolution, under authority practically irresisti- 
ble, the oligarchy yields to democrac}^, and the Declaration 
of Independence comes out distinctly to take its place in the 
State governments. " We,'' now of modern times, we South 
and North, we the representative power of the nation, in 
Congress, conventions, and legislatures assembled, now, as 
did the Revolutionary fathers, " hold these truths to be self- 
evident, — that all men are born free and equal, and endowed 
by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, and among 
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and that 
all true governments derive their just powers from the con- 
sent of the governed." These grand old announcements are 
at length to be thoroughly practical in the Great Republic, 
and take their place in essence and form in the Constitu- 
tions of the Nation and the States. This is development 
such as ought to mark the century just following the great 
year of 1776. 

Other amendments 3'et to be made, whether general or 

8(i 



682 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

local, radical or conservative, liberalizing or guarding the 
fundamental law, are of comparatively little importance. 
They may be tried, found imperfect and improved, or im- 
practicable and abandoned ; but this advance is organic and 
irrevocable. 

At the close of this remarkable period, we look back with 
amazement at the events which have occurred. It may well 
be said, there have been no other such ten years of history 
on this continent. The work of long ages seems to have 
been crowded into a few brief years. The most sanguine 
reformers did not expect to live long enough to see revo- 
lutions so grand, and all in favor of liberty ; but we have 
seen them, and are constrained to say, " It is the Lord's 
doings, and it is marvellous in our eyes." 




!AJ„ (0ER3. ®„ m. KflDTCiEl 



PERIOD V. 

MISSION. 



CHAPTER I 
THE NEW NATION. 

" It is the third huge fjjate of barbarism, the monarchical gate, which is closing at this 
moment. The nineteenth century hears it rolling on its hinges." — Hugo. 

"America is now the grandest combination of power, stability, unity, freedom, and 
happiness, the world lias seen." — Paetkidge. 

A REVOLUTION SO great as that through which we have just 
passed could 'not leave us precisely the same as before. It 
is true, we have the same country, the same climates, the 
same physical resources of wealth and happiness : but we 
have changed ; and, in our changed condition, we present a 
strong contrast to almost all nations emerging from pro- 
tracted, desolating wars. 

The strength of the Great Republic has been but partially 
tested ; for we have been at war with a large portion of our 
own people. Looking at the development of our resources, 
and the achievements of our arms, in this divided state, we 
are compelled to ask. What would they have been if our 
war had been against invasion from a foreign foe ? 

Look at the men brought into the field from the numbers 
of our loyal citizens. From April 15, 1861, to April 15, 
1865, the calls of the President charged against the several 
States amounted to 2,759,040 men. Of these, 2,656,553 are 
credited, showini^ that the Northern States and Territories 

6tS3 



68-1 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

actually sent this large number of men into the great strug- 
gle, lacking only 102,496 of the whole number called for; 
and these were rapidly coming in when the close of the war 
arrested the people in their march to the field. Besides 
the above, 120,000 "emergency men" and 178,^75 colored 
troops sprang to arms, at the call of the government, to save 
their country and their liberties. 

On the 1st of March, 1865, our military force of all arms, 
officers, and men, amounted to 965,591. On the 1st of May, 
1865, — just two months later, — the number had swelled, 
by enlistments alone, to 1,000,516. According to the public 
judgment of the most enlightened of other nations, these 
facts are without a parallel in history. 

Of our brave citizen-soldiers, there were, during the war, 
killed, wounded, and missing, 441,316 ; while the killed, 
wounded, and missing of our rebel foes reached 765,765: 
niakiniJ- the friditful ao-a-re^irate of victims to this Rebellion 
1,207,081. 

When the war closed, we held of our Confederate foes 
98,802 as prisoners of war ; while the whole number of men 
surrendered to our arms amounted to 174,223. 

Now, when we place by the side of these exertions of 
power, and exhaustions of numbers, the fact, that our popu- 
lation steadily increased during the whole period of the war, 
we shall have some idea of the moral force of people, with 
which we enter upon our future mission. 

Look at the cost of the war. As a single fact toward an 
approximate estimate, consider, that, for the five years ending 
June 30, 1866, the expenditures for the war and navy de- 
partments increased more than $300,000,000. Add the 
amount paid for pensions (alreadj^ between $15,000,000 and 
$16,000,000 annually), add also the interest of the public 
war debt, the expenditures of the loyal States for bounty, 
relief of soldiers through the great commissions and other- 
wise, the maintenance of military force in the rebel States 
during their unsettled condition, the enormous destruction 



THE NEW NATION. 635 

of property ia the war districts, and the value of the hxbor 
of our millions taken away from the pursuits of industry to 
exhaust their time and strength in military campaigns, and 
the amount swells beyond our power of estimation or proper 
conception. Notwithstanding all this, we begin our new 
career with largely increased wealth and business energy. 

Look at the national debt. On the 3 1st of August, 1865, 
it rose to $2,735,689,571, — its highest point. To this must 
be added the debts of the several States and local corpo- 
rations, amounting to about $650,000,000. The aggregate 
of these public debts seems so enormous, that great financiers 
in England and on the Continent have regarded repudiation 
and the utter bankruptcy of the nation as inevitable. We 
moved from the war into the future with this debt. 

Look at our resources. The Great Republic does not 
stagger under these enormous burdens. Our people paid 
income-tax, in one day, — viz., the 31st of August, 1865, — 
$2,315,000; on the 4th of September, 1865 (a Sunday 
preceding), $4,066,731.42 ; and on the 2d of January, 1866 
(New-Year's holiday preceding), $4,068,000. These figures 
show the highest amounts reached in a single day. The 
growth of wealth may be seen by the following figures. In- 
come-tax yielded in 

1864 114,919,279.58 

1865 20,567,350.26 

1866 60,894,135.85 

The whole amount realized from this source from 1862 to 
1866 is $164,865,018. Our aggregate revenue from cus- 
toms, internal revenue, and direct tax (including also loans 
and treasury-notes), reached in 

1864 . . . ... $1,358,758,614.58 

1865 1,805,939,345.98 

1866- 1,270,884,173.11 

Can a people commanding such resources, with reasonable 



68g THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

finiincial economy, be wrecked for the want of funds ? Let 
it be observed, that, notwithstanding the predictions of our 
foreign friends, we have paid all our interest, amounting, as 
it did for 1866 (hicluding treasury-notes), to $133,067,741.- 
69 ; and from the 31st of August, 1865, to the 1st of 
October, 1867, we had reduced the principal of our national 
debt $262,412,124.21. Thus we begin our great future.* 



ORGANIC UNITY AND REGENERATED PATRIOTISM. 

During tho reign of slavery, sectional tendencies greatly- 
impaired and threatened our united strength. Though the 
ultra doctrine of State against National rights was thoroughly 
exploded by our clearest-minded statesmen, it nevertheless 
exerted an injurious influence over the national feeling of 
multitudes. The first great fact of the new nation is the 
acknowledged indissoluble unity of all the States and Terri- 
tories. We are not merely so many milHons of people, liv- 
ing in good or bad neighborhood ; we are not so many great 
sovereign States of rival and antagonist power. We now 
know for ourselves, and the world understands, that, like 
" liberty and union," our great States are " one and insep- 
arable now and forever." This aggregates our strength, 
bringing all our millions of people and wealth into one grand 
wdiole ; and this can no longer be regarded as a unity of 
accidents, a unity by external pressure or arbitrary power. 
It is a unity of principles, of national life and development ; 
by the clearly expressed will of God, an organic, indissoluble 
unity. 

Strong and enthusiastic has been the feeling of American 
patriotism from the first. It has, however, been vitiated by 
sectional institutions and vices, especially those of slavery. 
But the patriotism of the new nation has passed through 
the fire. Its dross has been given to the flames. It has been 
" tried, and comes forth as gold." Now we love, not one 
town or one State merely, not the North or the South 

* Official statistics, from Hon. C. Cole, senator from California. 



THE NEW NATION. 587 

alone ; but we love our whole country. Southern patriots 
have suffered by the assault made upon its integrity, and 
Northern people in its defence, as hardly any people ever 
suffered before ; and now the whole land, baptized in tears 
and blood, is unspeakably dear to us all. Woe to the nation 
which shall attempt to place hostile foot upon it ! Every 
inch of this vast country is now sacred soil, — sacred to liber- 
ty and to God. 

True, the time has not yet come for the largest, fullest 
realization of this regeneration of national patriotism. The 
bitter prejudices of a generation at least must pass away 
before its obstacles will be removed, and the love of country 
throughout our growing millions shall reach the national 
breadth and power which now rises up before us as our cer- 
tain destiny. True, also, the task of experimental Christian- 
ity, in grappling with our personal and national vices, is 
hard, and practically endless. Just so far, however, as it 
advances, it will extend our patriotic devotion to our whole 
great country into the sphere of a true philanthropy, and 
proportionally increase its power. 



THE TRANSITION. 

The history of reconstruction cannot now be written. It 
is not yet accomplished. The chaos immediately following 
a bloody war and a great revolution must have time to re- 
solve itself into order. Popular legislation and a passing 
administration cannot lead as promptly to executive strength 
as could a pure-minded, absolute despotism. There will, of 
necessity, be a great variety of opinions as to the methods 
of rehabilitating States resolved by rebellion into their in- 
organic elements. Party spirit will struggle hard for the 
mastery, and only by degrees will the true methods of wis- 
dom evolve from the strife. We shall not, therefore, chroni- 
cle the contests or the decisions that are seeking to iden- 
tify the facts and principles which must assume the mastery 
in our final adjustments and future developments. 



G88 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

A few things incident to our critical, transition period, we 
have distinctly seen. The feeling of revenge, gradually nar- 
rowing the scope of its hostility, and triumph moderating into 
magnanimity and fraternity, point the way to a hopeful future. 
In the mean time, it has been evident that our released mil- 
lions could not, without help, wisely and safely assume their 
new relations of independence and equality before the law ;. 
and hence me Freedmen's Bureau has been an absolute neces- 
sity. It has been shown by indisputable facts that former 
rebel, masters would seek to invent methods of virtually re- 
manding them back to slavery ; that they would not, with- 
out the presence and authority of the General Government, 
deal with their former slaves as freemen, nor would they 
all render obedience to civil national law without the pres- 
ence of a power competent to enforce it. Hence acts of 
Cono-ress for the reconstruction of State s-overnments have 
included adequate military force; and obstinate local injus- 
tice has been, in some instances, compelled to yield to the 
power of a strong national government, now, more than in 
any former period of our history, beginning to be known 
and realized as everywhere present. 

In the mean time, it can be affirmed with gratitude that 
resreneratino; influences from the various churches have found 
their way through our distracted South ; and, subduing rebel- 
lion against God, they have inspired consideration and love 
for man, until it may be claimed that the most hostile parties 
are gradually losing their asperities. Around and within 
the newly-organized churches of the South a true and noble 
citizenship is rising up in loyal obedience to the government 
and to God. Thus another indication of the true power of 
reconstruction reveals itself 

It is not yet, however, time to write the history of this 
great regenerating force in its work of re-organizing civil 
society. The loyal people, white and colored, by thousands 
and tens of thousands, are getting their places in the Church 
of Christ ; and, just so far as this work extends, the strength 
and harmony of the new nation appears. 



THE NEW NATION. 689 



IMPARTIAL SUFFRAGE. 



The vindication of justice in a free government requires 
a free ballot. Loyal men must be allowed to express their 
wishes as to their representatives. They must choose their 
own rulers, and, subordinately to the Constitution, make the 
laws of their own States, and bear their just part in the law- 
making, judicial, and executive departments of the General 
Government. 

The growth of ideas on this subject has been very rapid 
in this country during the period of emancipation. The 
basis of suffrage has been changed ; the privilege has been 
greatly extended : but the questions raised have not yet been 
settled. The partiality of the old nation seems to have 
been marked in the new for destruction. The persistent pur- 
pose manifested by disloyal men to reclaim the control of 
government in their respective States, and to resume the 
positions in the General Government which would enable 
them, as in other days, to control the nation, has been used, 
in the providence of God, as the means of giving the ballot 
to the black men of the South. This decision we regard as 
irreversible ; and it is utterly impossible to over-estimate its 
importance. The colored people are peaceable and loyal. 
They seem to want only simple justice. Their good be- 
havior amid the great changes which have been going on 
in their favor has astonished both enemies and friends. 
They have no disposition to fight for their rights ; but 
going in vast numbers as they now do to the polls, by the 
side of their former masters, they can protect themselves. 
Heaven and earth proclaim this just. It is as surely the 
order of Providence as was the Great Proclamation. God 
would not permit the war to close till liberty was proclaimed ; 
he would not permit the South to settle down upon any 
policy of reconstruction until their former slaves, the victims 
of hoary oppression, were proclaimed to be men, and, as 
men, were permitted to exercise the rights of freemen. For 



87 



690 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

the poor oppressed race it was a proud day when they 
first went to the polls in the District of Columbia, and 
wielded the ballot, which demonstrated their emancipation, 
and proclaimed their right and ability peacefully to defend 
their freedom. Here men would have arrested this innova- 
tion ; but right onward it moved, until the very obstinacy 
of rebels became its most potent instrument, and in every 
State of the South the stalwart men of the proscribed race 
were seen marching to the polls. So much is irrevocable. 

It seems now difficult to tell when our people of color in 
the Northern States will be admitted to the same privilege ; 
nor can it now be said what will be the basis of suffrage 
when the nation is finally settled : it surely will not be the 
color of the skin. The new light of the Great Revolution 
has destroyed forever the darkness of this gross absurdity. 
It certainly will include loyalty to the nation. Treason in 
the Great Republic has slain its right to vot*e. It may be 
that the American people will be able to find some standard 
of intelligence which belongs to true responsible civil man- 
hood, and that the right of the ballot will be as broad as this 
ascertained legal manhood. But whatever may be its basis, 
when the new nation is completed, the asserted, conceded 
right of suffrage will be impartial. 

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 

Free as our noble country is, there has hitherto been too 
much of caste in the privileges of education. We have felt 
the power of wealth and rank to some extent, and more of 
prejudice, in the superior opportunities for learning afforded 
the children of fortune. Our great common-school system 
has battled bravely with this odious discrimination ; but it 
has not been broad enough nor high enough to realize the 
true idea of universal education. The slave-system at least 
must be dashed down before we dared to say and insist that 
every qhild in the United States should learn to read and 



THE NEW NATION. QQ\ 

write. But that formidable barrier to progress is gone ; and 
now the school-book, the pen, and the pencil follow the gos- 
pel in the track of the sword. Christian people, naturally 
and of right foremost in every great missionary work, 
promptly moved American citizens to care for the four mil- 
lions freed from the shackles of slavery, and save them and 
the nation from the perils which must arise from their igno- 
rance. Freedmen's-aid societies in various forms, local and 
general, sprang up in every part of the country ; and vigorous 
educational measures were adopted, and extended to many 
parts of the South. These associations showed in the abun- 
dance of their funds, and supplies in kind, and in the aston- 
ishing self-sacrifice and moral courage of volunteer instruct- 
ors, how deep and pervading were the convictions of the 
American people that slaves were not freed to become the 
victims of anarchy and reckless passion. " The needy must 
be fed, and all must be educated, and prepared for citizen- 
ship," was the prompt and universal judgment of the North, 
the East, and the West, and of many noble patriots in the 
South. 

These voluntary associations, in their pioneer investiga- 
tions and labors, brought to the nation and the government 
a large amount of information in regard to the destitute, 
suffering condition of millions of freed people and " poor 
whites." They exposed promptly, and frequently at the 
risk of their lives, the cruel injustice of many former mas- 
ters, and lawless villains who had never owned a slave. They 
powerfully moved and influenced the government to the or- 
ganization of " The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and 
Abandoned Lands," which, under the superintendence of our 
noble Christian major-general, 0. 0. Howard, became their 
effective co-laborer in this field of sacrifice and generous toil. 
This, as was fitting, identified the nation with the great 
paternal work of relieving and educating the nation's wards. 
They gave to the missionary workers in these perilous fields 
military protection from the hand of ruthless violence, paid 



692 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

the fare of teachers, and, as far as practicable, furnished 
build in o;s for the work of instruction. 

At length the Christian churches, whose ministers and 
members had given largely and wrought effectively through 
these voluntary societies, and co-operated with all their hu- 
manizing, secular measures, believing that the time had come 
to make the philanthropic labors of the nation more thor- 
oughly Christian than heretofore, began a system of edu- 
cation in connection with evangelical missionary work among 
the freed men and other people of the South. This, while 
it brought a new and vital force into the field, furnished the 
societies with another accession of co-operative labor ; so that 
now we have working side by side, and in departments of 
the same general field, all the freedmen's-aid societies, the 
Freedmen's Bureau, and all the great evangelical churches. 

At last reports, their combined labors had established and 
maintained among these needy people 1,399 schools, in 
charge of 1,658 teachers, numbering 90,513 pupils. There 
are, moreover, reported 782 Sunday schools, with 70,610 
scholars. Thus moves on the work of education among 
the freedmen. Of these pupils, 15,248 are paying tuition 
amounting to $11,377.03 per month. 

Let our readers accept these facts as a part of the evi- 
dence that universal education will become the character- 
istic of the new nation. 

THE NEW AMERICAN CHURCH. 

There is a sense in which we can speak of the Church 
of England as we shall never be able to speak of the 
Church of the United States of America. Episcopalianism 
is established by law in England. It is the legal religion of 
the kingdom : all other forms of worship are tolerated merely. 
This, let us trust, will never be true of any denomination in 
the Great Republic. We are nobly emancipated from a 
form of churchship so thoroughly condemned by revelation, 
philosophy, and history ; and it need not be feared that we 



THE NEW NATION. 693 

shall ever hereafter be re-inthralled. Most happy are we to 
notice that the upheavals of society in England promise 
deliverance to the Church in that nation from political dicta- 
tion. 

It must not, however, be assumed, that, in America, we have 
only a confused mass of conflicting sects. Such an opinion 
of American Christianity would be wholly superficial and 
untrue. While we glory in the freedom of opinion, and ad- 
mit the historical circumstances which have made us several 
large ecclesiastical organizations, we exalt the grace of God 
which has made us one Church. In the great object of wor- 
ship, the triune Jehovah, in simple, absolute dependence upon 
a common Saviour, in the pervading power of the new life, 
we are and always have been one. 

But the Church of the new nation will have a broader, 
more powerful unity than the Church of the past. The fun- 
damental facts of our old brotherhood are more evident and 
imposing than before. The upheavals of a great moral 
revolution have summarily disposed of the feeling of differ- 
ence, always stronger than the reality. Our method of unity 
is not that of despotic authority, but of development. We 
have reversed the theories of Europe. For a thousand years, 
they have sought unity by repression ; we have found it in 
liberty : and the unity of Christian work is the grandest, 
most potential fact of the age. The new American Church 
will therefore be, not the Church of prescriptive dogma, but, 
in a sense higher, stronger, than the old, the Church of vital- 
ized and harmonized action. 

The Great Revolution has released the intellect and heart 
and enterprise of the American Church from the restraints 
imposed by a powerful internal despotism. It will now, 
therefore, be broader and freer in its outspoken veracity, 
its gushing sympathies, and aggressive labor, than heretofore. 
God has spoken to her in a voice that will ring in her ears 
till the day of judgment, saying, " Move to the front in this 
great battle of liberty! If you allow again the reign of 



694 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

caste or political corruption, you are responsible. ' The weap- 
ons of your warfare are not carnal, but spiritual, and mighty 
through God to the pulling-down of strongholds.' The 
well-springs of life are within you : pour its streams into 
dead men, and social, civil organisms, everywhere. Send the 
power of soul-liberty throbbing through the hearts of the 
people and the nations. ' Stand fast in the liberty wherewith 
Christ hath made you free, and be not entangled again in the 
yoke of bondage.' " If these orders are heard and obeyed, 
the new American Church will be a living, united, free, 
evangelical Church, the vital force and grand working power 
of the new nation. 

THE NEW AMERICAN MANHOOD. 

A man is narrow and weak when he is not willing that 
another human being shall be a man. The manhood of 
America, strong as has been its development, has been limit- 
ed by its selfishness, its prejudices, its exclusiveness. In 
every attempt to announce his own freedom, the American 
citizen has felt his self-contradictions. In every indulgence 
of national pride, he has been humbled by national injustice. 
At home or abroad, in his jubilant praises of republican free- 
dom, he has been arrested, and stung to madness, by the 
abrupt response, ^' Look at your four millions of slaves ! " 
Only in one condition for a hundred years has an American 
been a man, always and everywhere a true man ; that is, in 
a genuine Christian life that revealed a plain, clear, working 
antagonism to America's great wrong. Humbling as is the 
confession, in all our cringing, apologetic submission to this 
grandest, vilest despotism, we have been less than men ; and 
there has been enough of this to dwarf the general manhood 
of the nation. 

Thanks to God only, we have done with that ; and we are 
stronger, greater, than we were. It is true, the emancipa- 
tion is not yet universal ; but it will be. The fiat has gone 
forth. No true American will hereafter be awed into silence 



THE NEW NATION. 695 

by insulting threats of violence when he undertakes to ex- 
pose a vice or denounce a great injustice. The press and 
the pulpit will speak out in any part of our great country 
in the cause of the defrauded, the poor, and the helpless. 
So thorough and bold are the workings and outpushings of 
Liberty, that she will go everywhere. She will paralyze the 
hand that seizes a man to bind upon him the fetters of 
slavery. 

And the new nation is more humane for its justice. No 
vindictive spirit is born of Freedom's struggle and triumph. 
No deeper sympathy, no truer love, has ever honored the 
manhood of man than that, which, in the might of Christian 
justice, arose to strike off the fetters of slavery, and which, 
in the spirit of Jesus, is now endeavoring to " beat our swords 
into ploughshares, and our spears into pruning-hooks ; " and 
love still aspires to absolute dominion in the new American 
manhood. 

The free spirit of science and the true genius of art, the 
heroism of truth and the omnipotence of prayer, will power- 
fully crowd forward our manhood march toward its typal per- 
fection ; and it will include every American, every man. 

" I verify the fact, that America is one of the most moral 
and enlightened nations on earth. I verify the fact, that, if 
democratic levelling be detestable, America has at least 
known how to extract from it what makes the man, — con- 
science. If certain acts of violence have taken place, the 
electoral contest in America has almost always preserved 
complete liberty. These orators of the different parties arriv- 
ing like princes to the sound of salutes of artillery ; these 
assemblies of ten thousand, twenty thousand, auditors ; these 
vast questions, in which the fate of nations is involved, dis- 
cussed from the shores of the Atlantic to the recesses of 
the desert, — all this is a spectacle which does not lack 
majesty ; " * and which, we may add, fitly characterizes the 
new nation. 

* America before Europe, by Count be Gaspaein, pp. 374, 375. 



696 THE GEEAT REPUBLIC. 

See the poet's prophecy rapidly passing into history : — 

On the rocks we read the story 

Of the revolutions grand 
Which in ages past and hoary 

Swept o'er mountain, sea, and land : 
There we trace the mighty stages 

Of the world's historic time ; 
And we mark the buried ages 

By their monuments sublime. 
Out of fiery storms of forces, 

Out of cycles never calm, 
Nature, in her mystic courses. 

Shapes the mammal and the palm. 

History points with solemn finger 

To her records dim and old ; 
And, as thoughtfully we linger. 

Still the lesson there is told. 
Through the struggles and the burnings. 

Through the stern and frantic strife. 
Through the nations' fierce upturnings. 

Put they on a fresher life ; 
Then they pass to higher stages 

Both of greatness and renown : 
In the conflict of the ages 

Glor}' doth the nations crown. 

Lo ! we feel the wild upheaval 

Of a nation's hidden fires : 
Right is battling with the Evil, 

And the smoke to heaven aspires ; 
War, tumultuous and red-lighted, 

Sweepeth with sirocco blast ; 
And our green young land is blighted 

As the tempest whirleth past. 
Not the death-throe of the nation 

Is this wild and awful hour : 
'Tis its painful transformation 

To a nobler life of power . 

As the fossils huge were buried 

In the massy folds of rock, 
So our saurian crime is hurried 

To its death-tiiroe in the shock. 
'Neath the Union's broad foundations 

Shall the monster Slavery lie. 
While the coming generations 

Ponder o'er the mystery. 
On to years of coming glory. 

Through a long triumphal prime, 
On through paths of deathless story, 

Shall the Union live sublime. 



THE NEW NATION. 697 

Nobler, freer, and more clorioiis, 

Shall the future Union be : 
O'er the despot's rod victorious, 

All the lands its strength shall see. 
North and South in one dominion, 

One in freedom evermore, 
O'er one land on loving pinion 

Shall the lordly eagle soar : 
Northern lake and Southern harbor, 

Cotton-field and prairie wide, 
Seaside slope and greenwood arbor. 

All shall boast the Union's pride. 

On, through all the stormy trial, 

God shall bring us on our way : 
Let us meet the stern denial ; 

Let us watch and wait and pray. 
Up from all this tribulation 

We shall rise a nobler land, 
And in peerless exaltation 

'Mid the nations envied stand. 
Welcome storm and fire and peril ! 

Fields Elysian yet shall rise 
O'er our war-worn wastes and sterile, 

Wrought by freemen's sacrifice.* 

* The Union as it Shall Be, by Dwight Williams. 



CHAPTER II. 
THE GREAT REPUBLIC IN HISTORY. 

" A nation of such men is the only true national unity, and is alone fit to enter with 
other such nations into those grander combinations of economy, of harmony, and of the 
progress and ambitions of peace, for which the world prepares." — Partridge. 

• 

The place of the Great Republic in the history of the 
race is now becoming distinct and important. Arguing 
from the character and government of God, it might have 
been inferred, and was, long ages ago, that he would some- 
where, and at some time, undertake to establish a govern- 
ment which should conform in its principles to the plans of 
the creation. There are reasons to believe, as we trust this 
discussion has shown, that this is that grand attempt. The 
country, the colonization, the independence, the develop- 
ment, the government, and the emancipation, all under the 
controlling power of the Christian religion, clearly indicate 
it. In the prosecution of this great providential purpose, 
the following results have become evident. 

REPUBLICANISM PASSES OUT OF ITS EXPERIMENTAL INTO ITS 
HISTORICAL PERIOD. 

That is often an experiment to the eyes of men which 
cannot be so to the mind of God. Representing the human 
view, we concede the fact, that governments attempted by 
the people, in the history of the world, have been unsuccess- 
ful experiments. We need not trace them. They have 
been the recoil of natural freedom from the usurpations 
of tyranny, the change and multiplication of the agents of 

698 



THE GEEAT REPUBLIC IN HISTOEY. 699 

oppression without the possibility of freedom, or the bold 
daring of a few brave patriots; all, however, under the 
genius of Paganism or some corrupted form of Christianity. 
How, in the light, of these histories, our venerated fathers 
could venture to make another experiment, must have seemed 
strange to the believers in "the divine right of kings;" but 
they resolved to make it. Whether the clear definitions of 
civil and political rights could be reached by the representa- 
tives of the people ; whether a few feeble colonists could 
resist the oppression of a mighty nation, and, by eight years 
of bloody war, establish their independence ; whether the 
Constitution adopted could be sustained as the fundamental 
law of the land, until it had triumphed over and worked out 
its own vices ; whether the freedom of the ballot ^and elec- 
tions could be maintained ; whether minorities would submit 
to majorities ; whether the permanence of executive govern- 
ment could be secured without a dynasty and an hereditary 
nobility; whether a nation made up of people separated 
by State lines could vindicate its sovereignty ; whether the 
people could put down a great rebellion ; and whether a re- 
public could grapple with and ultimately destroy the intensest 
form of despotism known among men, — were questions 
of most critical experiment. But, under the control of 
Providence, they are all settled ; and wise men abroad have 
just ceased to speak of the Republic of America as a 
grand experiment, destined to a signal failure. It has passed 
through the severest tests to which a nation has ever been 
subjected, and endured them all ; emerging at last, with the 
smile of a seraph, from its baptisms of blood. True, it is 
still militant. The spirit of liberty is aggressive, and has 
many formidable enemies. From the past, however, we 
learn the manner in which it will fight its battles. Faithful 
to the principles of liberty, loyal to the Sovereign above, 
ultimate triumph is certain. Great as are the events which 
we have sketched in the experimental period of our nation, 
its history has now just fairly begun. 



700 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 



THE PEOPLE, AS SOVEREIGNS, ADVANCE TO THE RANK OF A FIRST- 
CLASS POWER. 

The rank of a civil power must depend partly upon its 
population, partly upon its internal resources and external 
commerce, and partly upon the numbers and perfection of its 
army and navy. In these respects, the Great Republic has, 
by general consent, taken its place by the side of the first 
nations of the globe. But, in modern civilization, profounder 
facts must be considered. The laws of increase in popula- 
tion, the laws of unity, the development of physical and 
moral force and executive power, the spirit of governmen- 
tal institutions, the progress of intelligence and virtue, and 
the guidance and approval of Providence, must determine the 
relative position of any people among the nations of the 
world. In all these respects, hereditary sovereigns have 
watched their new rivals across the ocean, anxiously expect- 
ing to witness their failure, until the last grand crisis has 
passed, and at length the people of America take their 
place by the side of the mightiest princes ; and no haughty 
power affects to despise or dares to insult them. Indeed, 
the affectation of superiority over the Great Republic in the 
elements of a growing, vital civilization, in the energies and 
resources of a great government, has passed away from the 
most powerful nations of earth ; while the ease and mag- 
nanimity, the firmness and influence, of the government of 
the American people in such august presence, demonstrate 
their rank as a firstrclass power. 

POPULATION, AND INFLUENCE ABROAD. 

Thus we enter upon our future mission ; and, regarding 
the regular laws of increase as they have been established 
through a great number of years, our official census shows, 
that, in 1880, we shall have a population of 56,450,241 people; 
in 1890, 77,266,989; in 1900, only thirty-two years hence. 



THE GREAT EEPUBLIC IN HISTORY. 701 

we shall number 100.355,802! Assuming; that there is to 
be no great judicial interruption by decree of Providence, 
what grandeur of development is before us ! Looking for- 
ward only a generation, the results of God's great plans for 
this vast continent are positively overwhelming. 

But the growth of population is not to be considered 
alone : it is only one condition of real progress. We may 
look out upon the future increase of all the products of the 
soil, the advance in all the useful and elegant arts, the prog- 
ress in discoveries, in manufactures, and commerce, the 
development of our mines, of our institutions of learning, 
of our great and powerful American manhood, with the 
spirit of a living, renovating Christianity pervading the whole ; 
and we may form some idea of what is before us. 

But all this must come in to swell our influence abroad. 
We have passed the period when it is desirable to think 
of it as the power of legitimate protection ; and it would 
be equally unworthy of us to consider our coming greatness 
as the ability to overawe or triumph over other nations, 
small or great. Rather let it be considered as an indication 
of a responsibility so high and extended as to call for the 
profoundest humility and the noblest sense of justice. Our 
influence over the governments of the Western continent 
must not be that of overshadowing greatness, but of mag- 
nanimous fraternal kindness. To tlie nations of Europe we 
must present an example of liberal opinions, sustained by 
firm integrity and high-souled international right. How 
utterly unworthy of the Great Republic would be airs of 
superiority in strength or wisdom ! How much have we yet 
to learn from other nations ! how long shall v/e have reason 
to dig in their mines of greater antiquity ! and how much 
that is great and true in the liberty-loving millions of the 
Old World will demand our recosjnition ! 



702 ■ THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 



THE NATIONS OF EARTH ACKNOWLEDGE, RESPECT, AND TRUST 
THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

If it be matter of grave importance for us as a nation 
to know what are our accumulating elements of power, and 
in what manner we are entering upon the historical period 
of our mission, it is also matter of decided interest to know 
in what spirit we are received by the great family of nations. 
This is not a recent question. It began to receive its answer 
immediately after the Declaration of Independence ; but now 
it assumes a new aspect. The question is no longer one of 
patronage, but of the matured, decisive response to the per- 
manent establishment of this new element amon^r the lijov- 
ernments of earth. Now that it can no longer be regarded 
as exceptional or experimental, how is it regarded ? 

The answer is most grateful to the American people. 
Diplomatic relations are desired and established between 
the United States and all the nations of the civilized world. 
There is the highest regard for our rights and opinions. 
Our citizenship commands the most fraternal and honored 
consideration. Our free institutions and rapid growth have 
come to be the admiration of the greatest statesmen, as well 
as of the masses of Europe. English lords do not hesitate 
to quote our financial policy and discretion as a model for 
the British Empire. The French emperor imitates our pop- 
ular elections, by submitting to the people, in some form, the 
question of his crown : when he attempts to impose a gov- 
ernment upon Mexico, he demands a vote ; when he deter- 
mines to annex provinces to his empire, he calls the people 
to vote ; when he proposes the transfer of Venice from 
Austria to Italy, the people are asked to express their will. 
When an Italian prime minister wishes to adopt free tol- 
eration and universal equality of religious rights in the 
new nation, he refers to the Great Republic as his model. 
Scandinavia opens the way for evangelical Christianity. 
Prussia, under the lead of the great Bismarck, establishes 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC IN HISTORY. 703 

a constitutional government for reconstructed Germany ; 
and even Austria dashes aside the Concordat, and her em- 
peror talks, in Hungary and at home, of a free government. 

What is all this but a spontaneous homage to the great 
and free institutions of our own noble Christian Republic ? 

From our Pacific metropolis we communicate directly 
with Asia. Our commerce follows rapidly in the track of 
our Christian missionaries; and by both we are becoming 
extensively known by the millions of China, Japan, Bur- 
mah, and India. The silent, powerful workings of Christian 
liberty must inevitably accompany our progress. 

These facts indicate clearly our position in history, and 
our future mission. 



CHAPTER III. 

GOD IS THE SOVEREIGN. 

" We recognize God as the Supreme Disposer of our national affairs : our peace and 
true prosperity depend upon our allegiance to him and his eternal principles of justice 
and right." — California Conp. op M. E. CntJRCH, 1867. 

The history, which, in its principal and controlling facts, 
has passed before us, has shown the hand of God so distinct- 
ly, that it must be a strange blindness which can conceal it. 
He appears everywhere, not only as the Creator of our great 
continent, but as the grand, directing Providence, the gra- 
cious Sovereign, of the nation. We have his laws, not only 
in the book of revelation, but in the spirit of liberty which 
he has imparted to our government ; in the Christian char- 
acter of our institutions ; in the succession of facts rising- 
above the power, and contrary to the inclinations, of men. 
These all reveal his stern condemnation of our personal and 
national sins, and his divine approval of individual and 
national virtue, of the true spirit of worship and piety 
throughout the land. We know his will. His orders to us 
are as distinct and peremptory as though they had been 
written upon the fair flice of the heavens, or proclaimed in 
an audible voice to every ear from his throne above. We 
know, that, as our Sovereign, he forbids us to worship idols ; 
to be a nation of swearers, murderers, or adulterers ; to steal, 
bear false witness, or covet houses or beasts, people or lands, 
which belong to our neighbors ; that he requires us to keep 
sacred the holy sabbath, and to honor fathers and mothers ; 
to love him with all our hearts, and our neighbors as our- 
selves. We know that all our attempts to enslave men are 

704 



GOD IS THE SOVEREIGN. 705 

denounced by his law and his administrative justice in our 
guilty land; and that he requires justice of us, — clear, dis- 
tinct, elevated, universal justice. We know, that, as our 
great common Euler, he disallows all our dishonesty, pohti- 
cal corruption, intemperance, and bribery. If the plea of 
ignorance with regard to the will of a sovereign could ever 
avail for any nation, after the marvellous revelations of God 
in our history, it certainly cannot avail for us. 



REBELLION IS RUIN. 

We must obey. To be found in the wrong in the midst 
of such distinct and sublime revelations must be a grave of- 
fence ; but to be a nation of deliberate, practical atheists must 
be the highest crime. If our rulers dare to defy God ; if they 
treat his holy laws with contempt, profane his sabbaths, blas- 
pheme his name, become corrupt in character and in adminis- 
tration, — they will call down wrath upon us. If the people 

— the great body of the people, who are the source of civil 
and political justice — become corrupt and oppressive, forget- 
ting the lessons which have been taught them by unparal- 
leled mercies and the most awful judgments, we may now 
certainly know that overwhelming disasters are before us. 
If the Church should become recreant to her holy trust, now 
that she has been shown so clearly her high position and 
responsibility ; if her ministers should become proud and 
ambitious, her members earthly and sensual, and her pure, 
spiritual life be sacrificed for forms and a dead ritualism ; if 
the vain pretensions of philosophy and science should super- 
sede the pure, simple, and honest revelations of God's word, 

— we shall be cursed for such ecclesiastical and national 
crimes. We know that this is God's method of dealing with 
fallen churches and infidel peoples. Let the wrath which 
has fallen upon the Jew and the Pagan, the Mahometan and 
the Christian, for proud defiance of God, be our solemn 
warning. We are not above Almighty Power : we can by 

89 



706 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

no possible means go beyond the reach of Infinite Justice. 
True, the Ufe of liberty is indestructible : but this vitalizing, 
pervading, immortal power may be transferred to other 
people ; and we may go down amid the shouts of defiance 
and the wailings of despair, and the very name of the Great 
Republic become a hissing and a byword forever. Beyond 
all question, rebellion against God — intentional, persistent, 
prevailing rebellion — would overwhelm this nation in de- 
struction. 

LOYAL OBEDIENCE IS SAFETY AND SUCCESS. 

Let God be honored ; let righteousness, which exalteth a 
nation, prevail everywhere ; let the Church become purer 
as she enlarges, more exalted in her sense of duty, clearer in 
her vision as she looks out upon her future responsibilities ; 
let the ballot become the emblem of liberty and justice, 
and the life of divine love permeate the nation, inspiring and 
exalting rulers, lifting up the poor and distressed, vitalizing 
all legislation and administration of law, — and we are safe. 
It is in the light of this grand revelation of power, in the 
presence of these great equities, that our future rises up 
sublimely before the eyes of men and angels to-day. 

It is time for us to believe, without reservation, in the 
eternal safety of justice, in the infallible wisdom of God's 
revelations, and the absolute security of a nation ruled by a 
high and all-pervading sense of God, — God everywhere ; 
God in every thing, infusing life into the public organism, 
health and vigor into the nation's patriotism ; giving intelli- 
gence, breadth, and efficiency to the nation's philanthropy. 

What power can prevail against a people rendering loyal 
obedience to a Sovereign so high, so pure, so omnipotent ? 
" If God be for us, who can be against us ? " In the presence 
of such a possibility even, the very conception of our nation's 
future is sublime. Let this loyal devotion to the right, to 
God, prevail over our personal and national vices ; let the 
regeneration of our humanity, under the redeeming agency 



GOD IS THE SOVEREIGN. 707 

of the great Messiah, go on until purified by divine power 
and invigorated by divine inspirations, according to the now 
distinctly manifested purposes of our great Sovereign, — and 
this nation shall stand forth " fair as the moon, clear as the 
sun, and terrible as an army with banners." 

THE UNITED STATES A GREAT CHRISTIAN POWER. 

We have seen that God has intended the Great Republic 
for this, and this only. Whoever seeks to destroy the 
religious faith of its people, or their sound, trusting devotion 
to the purifying, elevating doctrines of Jesus Christ, is the 
enemy of our government ; for, with this destroyed, it has 
absolutely no basis on which to rest. It has no other 
reason for existing, only that a grand Christian power was 
the choice and purpose of God for this Western continent 
and that its lead in the march of justice before the eyes of 
men was required for the great future. In point of fact, 
therefore, no treason in this land is so guilty as moral treason ; 
no enmity to republican liberty is so perilous as enmity 
against God ; no disloyalty so menacing as infidelity. We 
certainly cannot exist as a nation of atheists. 

With what humble gratitude, therefore, have we traced 
in our remarkable history the Christian elements of our 
national character ! How strong we have felt as we have 
seen clearly that God, and not man, provided the place, and 
formed the plan, of our national existence ; that the Christian 
religion, embodying the purest principles known in the 
world, became the very first, and ultimately the controlling, 
organizing power of our government ! How vigorously has 
this principle wrestled with oppression, and dashed it to the 
ground ! How thoroughly has this, and this alone, wrought 
against our own personal and national vices ! How evi- 
dently has this only eradicated any one of these vices ! How 
quickly, in the absence of the laws and dominion of Jesus 
Christ, would they rise against and overpower us ! 



708 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

Let no man, therefore, no number of men, attempt to rob 
us of this our glory. We are not a Pagan or Mahometan, 
but a Christian power. As such, we are closing up the first 
century of our national existence; as such, we have put 
down our most infidel vice, American slavery, and entered 
upon the second great era of the development of liberty. 
We must now go on to perfect our system as a great system 
of Christian government. Our laws must all be rendered 
just and equal. From our State and National Constitutions 
the last vestige of oppression and infidelity must be elimi- 
nated, and God enthroned in all our forms of government 
and social life. Personal regeneration must extend until 
political corruption shall become improbable, unpopular, im- 
possible ; until the only way to preferment shall be that of 
Christian patriotism, and an honest, broad, and noble philan- 
thropy. Then the laws which shield the public enemies in 
the sale of intoxicating liquors, or in any way poisoning the 
public morals, will disappear from our statute-books, and 
ample protection to innocent sufferers will take their place. 

Do you say this can never be ? Never ? Then the re- 
t»'eneration which God extends to some men cannot extend 
to others ; then the gospel of Christ is a failure, and " our 
preaching is vain ; " then, in the grand conflict of ages, vice 
is to prove itself more than a match for virtue ; then the 
word of unchangeable truth, that " righteousness shall cover 
the earth as the waters cover the sea," shall be demonstrated 
a failure. This cannot be. Long and terrible indeed will 
be the conflict; but the triumph is going on before our eyes. 
Its type is in every man created anew in Christ Jesus. Its 
progress is in the accumulating numbers of " the sacramental 
host of God's elect," and in the masterly style in which our 
national virtues triumph over vile forces and untoward events 
mighty enough to destroy any government not sustained by 
Omnipotent Power. Unwavering fiiith in the ultimate tri- 
umph of the right reposes to-day securely on the verities of 
history as well as upon the unalterable veracity of God. 



GOD IS THE SOVEREIGN. 709 

Let US. therefore, confidently expect the gradual but cer- 
tain development of Christian principles in the Republic, 
and believe in its future greatness as a Christian power. 
Let us contemplate the immense resources of this country in 
agriculture, precious metals, commerce, and moral influence, 
all wielded b}'' the hand and for the purposes of Christian 
justice. How immense must be its influence in every part 
of the world against despotism of every form ! How inev- 
itablji' will it blend with all forms of liberty everywhere, 
lifting up the down-trodden and oppressed of every land 
beneath the sun! How potentially will it command wars 
to cease, and all the forces of Christian civilization to march 
on for the conquest of the world ! 



THE REPRESENTATIVE OF PROGRESS. 

We have seen how rapid has been the development of 
this nation under the genial, vitalizing power of Christianity. 
Its material progress, so remarkable, is but the beginning and 
the least fact of this development. The growth of ideas and 
the advance of principles are much more important and re- 
markable. Take, as the central fact of this grand movement, 
religious liberty. With what giant strength this human 
right has hfted up the superincumbent mass of despotic in- 
tolerance under which it rested, and exploded its authority 
like the eruptive force of volcanic fires! With what un- 
conquerable might it has triumphed over antagonist bigotries, 
and moved out to proclaim everywhere "freedom to worship 
God " ! This is the American development of a grand old 
truth, and in it the moral power of the Great Republic is felt 
to the ends of the earth. In the great work of extending 
and applying this power, however, our mission is not yet 
accomplished ; nor will it be until the last vestige of religious 
despotism is swept away from Italy, Spain, Austria, and the 
world. And with religious intolerance will pass away all 
other forms of oppression. The free spirit of true Christianity, 



710 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

wherever it goes, works out the problem of soul-liberty, and 
tends to universal emancipation. The great fact of this 
mission of progress is, that it is the mission of peace, and not 
of war ; of love, and not of blood. Our example must shine 
in uninterrupted light. Our literature — volume and peri- 
odical — will pass into other languages, and it will be the calm 
expression of liberty. Our representative citizenship will 
assume the dignity, and command the consideration, through- 
out the world, due to great organic living truth. Our mis- 
sionaries of religion, with the most scrupulous obedience to 
all governments in which they are found, will be perpetr 
ual representatives of progress in the true American spirit. 
Our foreign ministers and consuls, with influence ever in- 
creasing, will be the calm, clear, manly expositors of the 
doctrine of liberty for princes, courts, and people. Our ships 
abroad will be laden with the word of God, and messages of 
salvation to the perishing. " Liberty to the captives " will 
move over the world by our grand steam-navies, and flash 
through the air by our telegraphs ; and the power of our 
growing prosperity, under the genius of Christianity, will be 
the silent, pervading influence which will blend harmoniously 
with all freedom everywhere as the grandest missionary of 
progress ever known among men. 



THE END. ' «) 

V 



V 



Gbo. C. Rakd & AVKBT, Stereotypers and Printers, Boston. 



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